Make You Feel My Love, Book I
by AsgardianHobbit98
Summary: [Captain America/OC] Maria has a secret, a secret which soon is uncovered. As people find out about her true self, she is forced into an entirely new world, finding new friends, new teammates and a very handsome captain. What will happen when a certain God of Mischief is teleported to Earth, bringing with him an army of things no one on Earth had ever thought they would see?
1. Chapter 1, Prolog

_Chapter rewritten, 2017_

 **A/N:** I'm not from an English speaking country! Apologies for the grammatical faults that may occur. Please, do not be afraid to correct me if something is very strange!

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 **Make you feel my love, Book I**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Marvel or any of its characters or movies/series. All I own is my own OC and  her story.

* * *

 **~ Chapter 1 ~  
Prolog**

What do you do when you're not good at something? Do you give up and try to find something new to do or do you fight? Some people continue on no matter what others say, fighting for what they believe in and doing what they love despite what others say. Some people find it embarrassing that there's something they cannot do, and so they keep on doing what they are doing badly anyway to keep their pride intact. And some people give up.

Maria Dalton was different. Her entire life, things had turned against her and those things had never been easy to walk past. She couldn't remember a time in her life in which she just lived and enjoyed what life had to offer. Maybe there were a few memories back in the old days, before she turned five, when her parents were still there for her; together and alive. Now, she was alone. Everyone in her family was dead or close to death, unreachable and not there for her. Not there to talk to her, make her smile and make her feel loved and as if she was a part of something. That simple comfort others in the world might have, she didn't have and although it saddened her a lot, it also drove her forwards, made her push through each and every day, hoping that there was something out there that she could find and become a part of.

Nothing in her life had been easy for her, the things she tried to do as a child such as learn to play the piano, she had failed at. Everything she had tried, she failed at. Though, she didn't stop doing the things she enjoyed doing. Although she was bad at it and everybody said that it was a waste of her time to even continue doing it – it being playing the piano, even though she lately did not have much time to do that anymore - she continued, hoping that she'd someday understand the basics so that she could actually be good in it.

It was her grandmother that had taught her the act of hope. She had told Maria that "everything in life is ugly unless there's hope for something better". Although Maria had never understood what she had meant by that as she had been too young to understand it when she first heard it, the words had still stayed with her and made her build her world up with hope. It wasn't stable of course, her world. It could break any moment and often, it did. The one thing she wanted the most in her life was to start a family, though her hope of ever having a children died when she was part of an accident in her early twenties. Her hopes of ever graduating had been crushed as well amongst many other things.

Her world was an ever changing one. Every day, every month, new hopes would arise and others would fall. It was fragile but it was strong for it never stopped existing. She tried her best to fill the emptiness with new hope, smiling whenever she could and laughing whenever she could. She didn't mind that strangers thought she was weird when she smiled at them, because it was the only thing that helped her to survive. For some times, just some times, she would get a faint smile back from a stranger and not only did she know that she might have made someone's day a little better, it also proved to her that there was still a little good left in the hearts of mankind. That goodness was what kept her awake during the nights. For she knew that there were people out there that were hindering that goodness from arising and making the world a better place. She knew this, and she wanted to stop it.

That was what had made her go outside that night. Usually, she'd use the night before an early shift to sleep fully and prepare herself for a hard day's work, but she had made the mistake to turn the news on that evening. And what she saw, she did not like.

Hell's Kitchen was a place in New York that was filled with scum and different mobs, all fighting against each other over the power of the drug commerce (amongst many things). She fought to contain the fighting and perhaps even stop the people from dealing the drugs. Those were her hopes, anyway. Of course other parts in New York weren't better, but Maria's world revolved around Hell's Kitchen… At least, it did at that moment before everything changed.

That evening, there had been a robbery at a bank not far away from where Maria had her new apartment, close to Hell's Kitchen though not quite in that area. She had heard the police sirens earlier on but she hadn't paid attention to them; until she turned the TV on. The robbers had gotten away through one of the sewer openings and were now fleeing from the police. Though, the police were nowhere in sight according to Maria. From where she was standing on one of the taller buildings in the city, she could see the police cars driving around on the other side of the city, far away from where the robbers were currently residing. The robbers were fully enjoying themselves, laughing at the police as they knew that they were far away from them. They carried large bags with money in them, most likely, while they loudly talked and laughed about the robbery. They were amateurs, she knew this. Amateurs were the only ones who openly talked about robbing a bank on the streets of _Hell's Kitchen_ , home to her and the _Devil of Hell's Kitchen_ , a name the media had begun to use for him _._

When the robbers turned into an alley - one of those which people didn't go into late at night - Maria had heard enough of their bragging and so, she attached her rope to the gutter of the roof and started to slowly and quietly lower herself to the ground. The darkness of the night combined with her dark clothes allowed her to land unnoticed next to the robbers. She slowly took out her sword from its holster when a sound made her freeze.

"I wouldn't move if I were you," said a male voice from behind the two robbers. Both Maria and the robbers turned their heads to the source of the voice, finding a man standing there in black clothes and with a scarf over his eyes and head, covering most of his face.

"Who the hell are you?" asked the first robber, furrowing his brows at the man.

"Shut up! Don't you realize who that is?" asked the other man, his voice sounding distressed.

Maria knew exactly who the man was. She had met him before, both without and with the mask (scarf) on. She was impressed that he was still going out during the nights, especially now that he was starting his own law office together with a close friend of his.

"That's the masked man," said the second robber through gritted teeth.

"What do you want?" asked the first robber, his voice sounding daring, almost as if he was asking for the 'hero' to attack him.

"I don't want to fight you. I know this is one of your first times doing this-"

"No, it's not! We're the very best robbers this town has ever had and you had better be careful with what you do to us!" said the first robber, pointing a chubby finger at the masked man. "We have many contacts that are gonna search for you and end you if you hurt us!"

"We have?" asked the second robber before being shushed by the fatter one.

"You hear me?" asked the first robber, his grip on the money bag tightening.

"Oh… I hear you," said the masked man before smirking as he suddenly kicked out, placing a solid kick into the stomach of the fatter robber, earning a shriek from the second man.

"Please, man… we just needed some money," said the second robber, dropping his money bag and holding his hands up.

"Tell that to the cops," said the masked man before kicking out again, placing his boot against the forehead of the second robber and knocking him unconscious. He turned his head to the first one and smashed his head against the street, not too hard though as it was only meant to knock him out.

As he stood there, two unconscious men lying by his feet, he stayed put, seeming to be listening to something before he lifted his head slightly, saying: "You can come out now."

"You're getting rougher," said Maria, stepping out of the shadows, her eyes directed at the masked man.

"Had to do something to stop them. They'll only have a headache once they wake up," said the masked man. "Are the cops on their way?"

"They'll probably be here soon," replied Maria, sending a quick message to a contact of hers in the police force. "I was going to arrest them though, not knock them out." She let her gaze wander over the limp bodies of the robbers. Luckily, there was no blood. These people were simple losers, trying something new with their lives and hurting them badly was unnecessary as they could still turn their lives around, doing something better with it then this.

"I have my ways. You have yours," said the masked man before turning around and starting to walk back the way he came, meaning towards one of the buildings in order to climb up discreetly.

"Matt?" asked Maria, making him stop in his tracks. "I want to thank you for everything you've done for me."

"I was merely being a good friend, Maria," said Matt, turning his head ever so gently to the side. "How's life there?"

"Good… I enjoy it. I have a second chance now," said Maria, a soft smile playing on her lips. "Thanks to you."

Matt turned around to look at her. "May I ask something?"

"Of course."

Slowly, he walked over to her, his footsteps just as confident as they were when he didn't have the mask over his eyes. Technically, he was blind. But he could still see the world, only completely differently than anyone else. He didn't see just darkness, as most blind people do. But he saw the world as if it was on fire. Therefore, it was harder for him to see than the others, though it was not impossible. He used his other senses to make his way around in the world, pretending to be completely blind in order to fit in with the crowd. At the moment, only Maria knew his secret and they both had agreed on keeping it like that.

"What are you still doing here? I mean, you don't live here anymore, in Hell's Kitchen," said Matt, cocking his head to the side.

"You know why," said Maria, the soft smile on her lips disappearing. "I grew up here… This place is my home. And it still needs me. It needs us."

"Maria, no," said Matt. "The last time we worked together, we were nearly caught by the police."

"Yes, but we stopped those drug dealers and we saved that woman," pressed Maria, taking a step towards her friend. "We can make a difference."

"We're not superheroes. We don't have suits made out of iron like your boss. We simply have our bodies and the clothes we decide to wear. It's dangerous and to be completely fair… I don't want you doing it," said Matt, shaking his head. "But I know you can't be stopped. And I'm okay with that… but just, be careful and think before you act. That sword, it would've made them laugh not cower back."

Maria shook her head as she looked down at it, placing it back in its holster. "Maybe, maybe not. But to be completely fair, you didn't have a weapon at all."

"And I'm me," said Matt, placing his hands on her shoulders. "I know you're strong. Hell, you're the strongest woman I know but please… be careful. You're my friend."

Maria felt something bubble up inside of her when he said this. She felt as though he was telling her that she was weaker than him because she wasn't blind, didn't have the ability to hear basically everything and was a woman. Though, she bit down the anger, simply shaking her head.

"We've had this conversation before," said Maria quietly.

"And none of us won. Like I said, I don't mean because you're female… and I don't mean you're weak… I just want you to be safe because without you… the only friend I have is Foggy. And I don't know how he's going to react when I tell him… This," he said, letting go of Maria's shoulders and gesturing towards himself.

"I know," said Maria, imagining what a shock it would be for a friend Matt had had his entire life finding out that Matt was not blind and actually a sort of vigilante. Matt had lied to him about so many things and he could imagine him simply not reacting very well to those secrets. "I'll be careful if you're careful."

"I'm always careful," said Matt, placing a swift kiss on Maria's cheek before turning around and running away, climbing up the wall towards the roof with the help of the metal stairs and the pipes, disappearing quickly.

"Bye…" she mumbled, police sirens starting to echo against the walls of the buildings while flashing blue and red lights began to flicker out on the streets. Quickly, she made her way towards the rope she had used before, climbing up and disappearing as well.

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 **Thank you for reading! Don't forget to let me know what you thought by leaving a comment!**


	2. Chapter 2, Stark Industries

_Chapter rewritten, 2017_

 **Make you feel my love, Book I**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Marvel or any of its characters or movies/series. All I own is my own OC and  her story.

* * *

 **~ Chapter 2 ~  
Stark Industries  
**

The trolley was heavier than ever that day. Though not because there were more things on it than usual. No, it was because Maria had stayed up so late the night before. After her and Matt had said farewell, she had made her way back to Midtown, slowly, scouting the streets in the process. Although it had been a calm night, she had still been up too late and she had barely had two hours of sleep when she finally got back home to her small apartment on the outskirts of Midtown. And because of the early shift that she had, her eyelids felt like they were made out of sandpaper; very heavy sandpaper.

She was in the last room that needed to be cleaned which just so happened to be Tony Stark's main office. It was a room which he didn't use very often. Especially not after he had become Iron Man. Then again, he didn't spend much more time in his office before becoming Iron Man either. When he was in his office, he was usually _with_ a secretary, which Maria hadn't enjoyed finding out on her own. Because of those horrid memories, she knocked three times on the wooden door - yawning as she did - just to be on the safe side.

"Come in!" she heard from inside, her eyebrows shooting up in surprise as she hadn't thought that someone was going to be in there.

"Mr Stark?" asked Maria as she slowly opened the door, peeking inside.

"Tony, remember? Call me, Tony," said Stark, his eyes glued on the screen that was placed on the desk in front of him.

"Sorry, sir." Stifling another yawn, she pushed her trolley inside of his office.

"No, _Tony_ ," corrected Stark with an exasperated sigh before looking over at Maria. "What are you doing?"

Maria turned her head to Tony, a mop in her hands. "Cleaning? Just like you pay me to do?"

"Ah, yes. Keep forgetting that," said Tony, earning a frown from Maria before she rolled her eyes, dipping the mop in the bucket filled with hot water that was attached to her trolley. "You know, soon you won't have to clean up anymore."

"Oh, really?" asked Maria absentmindedly as she started wetting the floor with the mop, making sure that she could see her own reflection in it so that it was extra clean. After all, Tony did pay her a lot of money just to keep the floor and toilets clean and she wanted to do her very best in order to feel worthy of that big amount of money.

"Yes, I'm working on something that is going to make you lose your job," said Tony, a sentence which made Maria turn her head and look at him surprised, and a little afraid. "You know, so you can get a better job here at, uh, Stark Industries."

"As if there's anything else that I can do here," mumbled Maria, leaning on the mop as she watched Tony stand up, inspecting her.

"Secretary," suggested Tony with an implication behind his words that made her frown slightly.

"Not after all the secretaries I've found you with … in this room… on that desk," said Maria, earning a raised eyebrow from Tony.

"Mad scientist. Someone that opens the door for everyone. Name it, and I'll give the job to you," said Tony, picking up a whiskey glass that was standing on his desk before walking over to the small table that had a large glass jar holding his precious whiskey. He poured himself a glass before downing it almost immediately.

"Why give someone that doesn't have the potential to do anything a job here when there are so many more brighter minds out there?" asked Maria, watching Tony pour himself another glass of whiskey.

"Because I know that you have potential. You're a strange young woman, Miss Dalton," said Tony, pointing a finger at her as he downed the whiskey once again before placing the glass on the table, pouring himself yet another. "There are no records of you in any schools in Hell's Kitchen. No graduation, no testimonial, no nothing."

"I've already told you that I didn't finish school," said Maria, her heartbeat racing.

"Yes, but there should be some school with your name in it then. If you ever did go to a school," said Tony, grabbing his now filled glass and walking over to Maria. "I'm trying to figure you out… and I can't do that if you're working for someone else."

"You're saying that it's okay to investigate your own staff. 'Cause it's not," said Maria, staring Tony straight in the eyes although she felt slightly intimidated by him at the moment. She hadn't known that he had been digging into her past and she knew that if he ever found anything that he didn't like, he'd confront her, wanting answers and… it weren't any answers she wanted Tony Stark, or rather Iron Man, to know about.

"When they work for me, it is," said Tony, shrugging. "Plus… I'm Tony Stark."

Maria stared at Tony for a while. For some reason, it felt as though he stared back at her in order to make her feel intimidated. Had he already found out what she had been trying to hide? Had he found out about her past and was he waiting for her to tell him the truth? Though, why should she? She didn't know him that well. Of course, they were acquaintances and he was her boss. But they weren't friends… were they?

"I… I need a raise," said Maria suddenly, the words slipping out of her mouth although she hadn't meant for them to come out at such a bad moment.

Tony kept staring at her, most likely noticing the small amount of sweat that was appearing on her forehead, making it glisten in the dim light of his office. He narrowed his eyes at her, lifting his glass up to his lips as he continued to inspect her every facial expression and although she tried to keep a serious face, she knew she was showing the panic she was feeling inside of her.

"Okay," said Tony suddenly, breaking the odd atmosphere that had appeared in the room as he turned around. "I've got this week's payment here so… next week you'll get a little extra."

Maria mentally sighed, taking a deep breath in order to slow down her heartbeat. "Thanks…" she mumbled as she followed him to his desk.

"Oh, and leave the office be. It was cleaned yesterday anyway," said Tony, opening one of the drawers from his desk and taking out an envelope. It was bulging slightly and she knew it was because of the money in it.

As Tony turned to Maria again, she reached out for the envelope but Tony flinched away, staring at her once again as he held the envelope away from her outstretched hand. "You've been working here for three months now. For three months, I've been paying you in cash. Why not get a bank account like any normal person would?"

"I have my reasons," said Maria quietly, her heartbeat once again raising. "Please… Stark, just give me the money."

Tony raised his eyebrows though she didn't know if it was because of her quivering voice or of her begging tone.

"Just… tell me if there is anything wrong, okay?" said Tony, his soft tone surprising Maria as he handed her the envelope which she cautiously took. "I can help. I'm Iron Man after all. And if you don't want Iron Man's help, I can help you as Tony Stark as well. Maybe Happy can escort you to your apartment or mayb-"

"Tony," said Maria, using his first name for the very first time since they had met which made Tony shut his mouth and look at her. "I'm your cleaner… _I clean the toilets_. Why do you care what happens to me?"

For a long moment, Tony just stared at her, blinking a few times. His mind seemed to be processing what she had said and for some reason, the kindness that he showed towards her made her heart slow down again and warm up instead.

"You're not like the other women here… not even like Pepper," said Tony. "You're different…"

Maria had met Pepper once since she had started working here and that had been on her first day when Pepper showed her around and told her what she had to do on her shifts. In other words, what toilets needed to be cleaned, what floors needed to be mopped etc. Her entire life, Maria had never felt at ease with a woman before. Women had always turned out to be difficult to socialize with, for Maria at least. The reason was quite clear to Maria; it was because of her mother. Though why other women never seemed to like her, she never knew. Perhaps because she was different from the others around her even though she still enjoyed buying clothes, jewellery and makeup. They just never seemed to approve of her, but Pepper had.

"Something about you just makes me…" said Tony, trailing of at the end. His words worried her. Was he going to say something negative or positive? Maybe even something creepy! "I don't know… I just care, that's all. Now, go, leave. Go to a bar and drink, dance or whatever you young people do nowadays."

Maria rolled her eyes, placing the envelope in the pocket of her grey jumper before walking back to the trolley, placing the mop in its place and starting to steer the trolley towards the still open office door.

"Hey, Tony?" asked Maria, turning around one last time to find him already sitting down behind his desk, glass against his lips. "Thanks."

Tony simply nodded his head, waving his hand for her to leave. There was no trace of a smile on his lips, though she had seen it in his eyes. Maria turned around and left the office, grateful that that encounter had not turned ugly.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading! Don't forget to let me know what you thought by leaving a comment!**


	3. Chapter 3, SHIELD

_Chapter rewritten, 2017_

 **Make you feel my love, Book I**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Marvel or any of its characters or movies/series. All I own is my own OC and  her story.

* * *

 **~ Chapter 3 ~  
SHIELD  
**

"Oh God…" sighed Ulrika the moment she saw Maria enter through the doors. Her Spanish accent was evident as she spoke and her dark eyes bore holes into Maria's skull.

"Good evening," said Maria with a forced smile creeping up onto her lips. She placed her hands on the counter which Ulrica was standing behind. Her grey jumper which she had decided to wear over her working clothes brushed against the white coloured wood of the counter when she leaned slightly closer to the Spanish receptionist. "May I speak to doctor Newton?"

"No," said Ulrika blatantly before turning away from Maria, continuing to print whatever papers she was printing.

Maria's smile fell from her face and annoyance boiled up inside of her. "You know that I know where his office is, right?"

"Doesn't mean that you're allowed to go there," said Ulrika without turning around.

With a furrowed brow, Maria stepped back from the counter and looked around herself. The waiting room was painted white, the furniture having multiple colours that mostly didn't really fit together. Because it was late in the evening, the small hospital's waiting room was deserted. The only sign of there ever having been any people was the fact that the magazines were spread out over the tables in a mess.

Maria glanced over at Ulrika who still hadn't turned around, knowing that her shift would end soon. She had two options, sneak past Ulrika to doctor Newton's office or wait until her shift ended but risking the fact that doctor Newton's shift would have ended as well. Not to mention the fact that she would have to sneak past the counter in between shifts which would be more stressful than the first option.

She quickly decided on what she would do and slowly she made her way past the counter. Her eyes were constantly on Ulrika, watching her fiddle with the printer as she waited for the papers to come out of the machine. She walked with quiet footsteps away from the waiting room and into the corridor, knowing that there were cameras everywhere though also knowing that doctor Newton was ashamed of what he did and that he in no way would let any of this stay on the camera feed. He was too proud and too cowardly for that.

It took only a few minutes for Maria to run up the stairs and get to the office of doctor Newton. She walked right past the room where her grandmother was lying, avoiding to look inside the slightly open door as it still hurt her to see her like that.

She knocked twice on the door, hearing shuffling from inside before the door opened, revealing the doctor she was looking for. At first, he looked shocked but then the annoyance came and he simply opened the door for her to enter, his narrowed eyes following her every move.

"Fresh from work I see," said doctor Newton as he closed his door. "I kind of hoped you wouldn't show up this week. I need the bed for a new patient."

Maria glared at the doctor as he sat down behind his desk again, gesturing for Maria to sit down as well though she refused, continuing to glare at the doctor.

"I've got the money," said Maria, grabbing the envelop she had gotten from Stark only an hour ago and handing it over to the doctor. She had of course kept a few dollars so that she could pay her rent and for the food that she needed, but it was still a lot of money that she handed him.

He opened the envelope and looked at its content sheepishly, brushing his thumb over the money arrogantly as if he could count how much there was in there without taking it all out.

"It's not enough," said the doctor, placing the money on the desk in between them.

"I'm getting a raise next week an-"

"I don't care," said the doctor, pushing the envelope towards Maria. "This is a ridiculous deal. You want me to deny other patients help just so that your grandmother can stay breathing. Yes, breathing not living. She's dead, miss Dalton, just get it into your pretty little head. She's been dead for almost ten years now. Let it go."

"Stop it," said Maria, her heart sinking at his words. He had never declined this before. "I said I'll pay you double next week."

"Yes, that's the problem. Where are you getting all this money from? Who'd be so stupid to pay this much for a girl that cleans toilets?" asked the doctor, his eyes narrowing suspiciously again. "You're not getting this from somewhere illegal, are you?"

"Aren't you straightforward today," mocked Maria, rolling her eyes. "Just take the money and stay away from the machines."

"Or what? You'll sue us? You don't have a reasonable reason to. You might be the only living family member she's got left, but the fact still remains that your name is nowhere on the paperwork. I don't care if you want to stay anonymous and I don't want to know what shenanigans make you even want to stay anonymous, this is stupid," said the doctor, shaking his head at her before standing up, seeing that Maria was not going to give in. "Kid, you have to realize that she's gone. Look at all this money! You can do so much more with it then give it away. Now, I don't care where you're getting it from, but save it. Save it and settle down somewhere."

"No… I want her alive!" said Maria, her heartbeat speeding up as her hands bawled up into fists. She felt ridiculous, almost like a child. Deep down inside, she knew that her grandmother indeed was dead. But she just couldn't and didn't want to accept that fact.

The doctor's coffee mug suddenly, randomly, fell off the desk, shattering everywhere and spilling coffee over his shoes. He barely reacted to it, simply sighing and pushing some of the shards away from his shoe.

"Fine. Just, remember our deal. The moment you stop coming here, those machines get unplugged and we use the bed for someone else. Someone alive."

Maria scowled before turning around, walking towards the door.

"Better have a raise next week," said the doctor, making Maria narrow her eyes before exiting his office, slamming the door shut behind her.

Her footsteps felt heavy just like her heart. She was unsure of whether or not the things she had been doing lately were the correct choices. Everything seemed wrong and miserable and whatever she did, she would always be judged and looked down at. Her choice of work, her bribing of the doctors, her hobby, her skills… her life was all a mess. Everything confused her lately and she didn't see a bright future ahead of her.

The door to her grandmother's room was still slightly open. However, this time Maria didn't walk past it. Instead, she looked inside, standing in the doorway and watching her grandmother lying there on a white bed. She entered the room quietly though didn't come any closer than necessary for her to see her granny. The old woman's body was decaying, she could see this. The once shiny and thick hair was now flat and thin and her every bone was visible. Multiple tubes were attached to her and the only movement that there was, was the movement of her chest as it was forced to rise and fall, forcing air into the old lady's body so that her cells wouldn't decay. She had gotten a stroke years ago and it had been a fatal one. Her brain had died and all that once was her loving and caring granny was gone. She knew this, but she just couldn't let go. Her grandmother was the only light that she had ever had in her life, letting her go would make her world so dark…

The law said that the machines were supposed to be turned off and that the patient would just have to go, but Maria couldn't let that happen and so, she used every single penny she could spare to bribe the head-doctor of the hospital-wing in order to keep her breathing.

It hurt to see her granny like that and so, she quickly turned around again and left, not bothering to sneak past Ulrika this time and ignoring the glares that were sent her way by the receptionist.

* * *

"No, no, no, no, no!" said the man as he entered an alley with a dead end, staring at the containers filled with leftover food from the restaurant that was placed there.

"Just stop," said Maria, entering the alley with her sword in her hands and a mask on making sure her true identity was kept a secret. She stared at the man as he slowly turned around, his hands shaking.

"Please… I just need this money. I owe someone a lot and I need it," begged the man. "Just, let me go. I swear, I'll never do it again."

"They all say that," said Maria, knowing that the police would arrive any moment now as she had just texted one of the cops the location that they were at. "And then I see them the next week with a gun in their hands and a body at their feet."

"I would never…" said the man but trailed off as he raised his hands. "Please…"

Maria shook her head, walking closer to the man, confident that this was over now since he had nowhere to go and no options left but to beg, which wasn't going to work. However, the expression on the man's face changed when she got closer to him from one filled with fright and regret, to an amused smile.

"Fine then," said the man, shrugging before suddenly charging forwards, grabbing Maria by the waist in such speed that Maria didn't even have time to raise her sword. Instead, it fell to the ground, the metal rattling, before she fell herself, the man on top of her. He lay a punch against her left cheek and she groaned, hating this already.

Maria placed her hands against his chest, trying to push him off of her but the man simply grabbed her hands and placed them underneath his knees, hurting her wrists in the process which made her bite down a squeal of pain.

"You think this was ever about the money?" asked the man, a strange accent suddenly appearing in his voice, one she couldn't quite place. He leaned forwards, his face inches away from hers. She began to struggle against his grip when his suddenly whispered something that made her freeze. "Hail Hydra…"

The whisper had been soft yet hearable to Maria and she widened her eyes in shock.

"Let the woman go," said a voice suddenly, filling the alley and echoing against the walls that surrounded them.

The man looked up which at first confused Maria as well until she realized that the voice had come from above them. Not to mention the fact that it had sounded metallic and oddly familiar.

"You have got to be kidd-" started the man but was cut off by a flash of light hitting him in the chest and making him fly off of Maria.

"I said get away from her," the voice said again as the groans of the man filled the alley.

Maria sat up, groaning at the pain in her cheek and wrists, when she heard something metallic land behind her and her senses tensed. Quickly, she took out her small dagger which she always carried with her in case she would lose her sword in battle, before turning around to look at whoever had saved her from the man. "Really? A dagger and a sword?"

Maria's eyes widened as she immediately recognized the voice as she saw who was standing there.

Iron Man.

"That's not really going to do much damage on me," said Stark, letting his helmet open up so that she could see the amused look that he had on his face.

"I could stick it into your arc reactor," said Maria, her voice shaking as two of her worlds suddenly collided with each other.

In front of her, her boss stood wearing his metal suit of armour while Maria sat on the ground with her suit on, risking to reveal to the one person that she did not want to reveal this to, exactly what her hobby was.

"Yes… But you wouldn't even get that far and who would pay you then?" asked Tony.

The only way for him to know that it was her was if he had followed her after she had left Stark Tower, though it could also be because the only thing that kept her identity a secret was a piece of cloth with two holes in it, strapped over her eyes like a wannabe Boy Wonder.

"Who would pay for your sweet little grandmother then, aye?" asked Tony.

A shiver ran up Maria's spine as he said this. He had indeed followed her every movement after her payment. Yes, he had seemed suspicious but Maria hadn't known he would go that far.

"I suppose I'm fired now," said Maria, earning a nod from Tony.

"Yes, you are. But only from your current position," said Tony, an odd look on his face. It reminded Maria of the look children had on their faces when they were about to open a Christmas gift and it unsettled her. "I'm here now to give you an offer."

"An offer?" asked Maria as she stood up, avoiding to put any weight on her wrists. "After all this, you're offering me a job? I lied to you. I lied you right in the face."

"Yes, and don't think I'll ever forget that but to be fair, you had a reasonable reason to lie," said Tony, making Maria relax slightly. "I've lied before as well. Sure, it might not have been a huge lie like this but… for some reason, your lie isn't as hurtful as the ones I've told to others."

Maria's eyes softened and she looked down at the ground.

"And to be completely honest, which I think we should be right now if we want to be friends in the future…" said Tony, making Maria look up at him with expecting eyes.

He wants to be friends?

"It's not a job offer. It's a… well… Have you ever heard of SHIELD?"

* * *

 **Thank you for reading! Don't forget to let me know what you thought by leaving a comment!**


	4. Chapter 4, The Tesseract

_Chapter rewritten, 2017_

 **Make you feel my love, Book I**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Marvel or any of its characters or movies/series. All I own is my own OC and  her story.

* * *

 **~ Chapter 4 ~  
The Tesseract**

Coulson's office was beautiful and filled with both souvenirs and collectibles of different kinds. Lately, his office had become hers in some ways and she enjoyed spending time with him. Her job at Stark Industries was over, yet she still saw Tony every now and then as he had promised her to keep a small payment open for her so that she could pay for her grandmother to be kept alive. She respected that and she was very grateful for it, though she doubted this deal could work for long. After all, everything that was good had to stop being good someday - a little something she had learned from life.

When the door opened, revealing Phil, she turned her head towards him and smiled. She was standing by the shelves filled with Captain America merchandise, admiring the fact that some of those collectibles were actually from Captain America's time.

"You have a nice collection," said Maria at which Phil simply nodded before closing the door behind him. "Did you get the results?"

Her heart started beating faster. Thanks to Tony's sweet talking to the director of SHIELD, she had managed to speed up her training into becoming an agent of SHIELD. Though, of course, she would still have to find someone that could be her supervisor during the first three years of being in duty for SHIELD and because she didn't know anyone else, she was hoping that Phil could either help her with that or even become her supervisor, though she doubted he had time with that.

"I did," said Phil, nodding his head as he looked at her with an unreadable look on his face. "And they said you were good."

A wide and excited smile appeared on her face. "Does 'good' mean that I passed?"

Phil smiled. "Director Fury was there and saw everything. To him, you're as good as an agent already. Though, you still need a supervisor."

"About tha-"

"He suggested Clint Barton," said Phil, making Maria widen her eyes at him.

"Agent Barton? But he's… He's suggested for the Avengers initiative," said Maria.

"Just like you which makes it a good deal for you to be under his watch," said Phil before handing her a file he had been holding in his hands which Maria hadn't even noticed.

"What's this?" asked Maria as she took the file from her.

"Your first mission," said Phil, offering a warm smile to Maria as she opened the file, watching her eyes scan everything inside of it.

"Tesseract… Thor? Captain America? I can't believe this is all actually happening to me."

Maria sat down on a chair as she continued to stare at the picture of the small cube. This had been the source of so much evil and she was allowed to be part of something this big? Did they not know of her past? Well, she knew they did. It had been the first thing Fury had told her about and showed her; her file about her past. With that in mind, she was completely baffled over the fact that they actually trusted her…

"You okay?" asked Phil as he sat down on the chair opposite of her while she nodded her head.

"It's just… I'm being pushed into this world of superheroes and… supernatural phenomena and… I'm not a superhero, Phil. I have a sword and a dagger… no powers. No strength. I'm just… me. I've stopped a few burglaries. I never fought a giant robot with my Asgardian friends backing me up… I'm nothing compared to these guys."

"I've found that it is the small ever-day deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay," said Phil, earning a look from Maria before she let out a soft chuckle.

"You just quoted Gandalf," said Maria as she closed the file again, smiling widely at Phil.

"Maybe. But it's the truth," he said, simply shrugging. "You don't have to be an advanced super soldier or an Asgardian to be a superhero and do something in this world. All you need, is a good heart and good intentions. And the will."

"Don't you know of my past?" asked Maria in a whisper.

"We do. But we don't care. The past is the past. Everyone can change, Maria. Even the darkest of hearts can find the light and that is something you need to remember. You can do extraordinary things, Maria. Never doubt that," said Phil before offering her a small smile which Maria returned. "Hawkeye's downstairs with Selvig, guarding this cube. If you're up to it, you can go down and talk to him ab-"

His words were cut short by the entire building starting to shake, some of Phil's collectibles falling down from their shelves. As it stopped, both Phil and Maria stared at each other in shock.

"What was that?" gasped Maria.

 _"Agent Coulson, sir, the cube it's… spiking."_

"How bad is it?" asked Phil, his finger placed on the ear piece in his ear.

"Bad."

"Call Director Fury. Tell him what's going on. I want everyone to start evacuating ASAP. If we can't control the cube, I won't have any casualties," said Phil before letting go of the ear piece in his ear, turning the signal off. "We need to go."

 _"All personal, evacuation order confirmed. Proceed to your designated vehicle. This is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill."_

* * *

Maria and Phil quickly hurried out towards the helicopter that smoothly landed outside of the building. Everywhere, agents were running towards cars, filling them up with whatever they had saved from the building; mostly classified boxes filled with important things that could not be wasted or destroyed in an explosion, which was the likeliest thing to happen at the moment. The fear of the building going to explode was what drove everyone into moving as quickly as they could and Maria was happy that the SHIELD base was far away from any civilization.

Before the helicopter had even touched the ground, Director Fury opened the door, looking at Phil and Maria as they both stood watching. The moment the vehicle touched the ground, Fury jumped out of the helicopter, ducking slightly in order to not get hit by the propellers as they were still circling.

Just like many other agents, Maria was wearing a tight suit coloured in dark blue and black. Around her waist there was a belt, very similar to the other agents' belts but with everything but a gun attached to it. She had her dagger and sword attached to it, her right hand resting on the pommel of the sword. Her long, dark hair swayed in the wind that the propellers of the helicopter created.

Behind Director Fury, Maria Hill walked. She had helped Maria with her training many times and as usual, Maria felt intimidated by the woman, stammering around her and avoiding her at all costs. Therefore, her heart sank slightly when she saw Hill following Fury, even if Hill was good to have by your side in a bad situation.

"How bad is it?" asked Fury as he and Hill reached Maria and Phil.

"That's the problem, sir. We don't know," replied Phil as Maria shifted so that she was standing slightly behind Phil, knowing that she was not the important person at the moment.

"Lead the way," said Fury, earning nods from Maria and Phil before they turned around and started walking towards the opening where agents in costumes or tight-fitting suits were running back and forth with important boxes, evacuating as much as they could.

They moved quickly and quietly through the crowd of agents evacuating and because of their swiftness, it didn't take them too long to enter the elevator that led down to the labs, specifically the lab in which the cube was being kept.

"May I congratulate you on finally getting a supervisor," said Hill as they stood in the elevator.

"Thank you," said Maria, wondering how the word could have spread so quickly.

"I doubt you'll need him for very long," said Fury, earning a shy glance from Maria.

"You all think very highly of me," deduced Maria, looking at the elevator doors, her hands clasped together behind her back.

"You should too," said Fury, exchanging a look with Maria before the doors opened and Phil and Fury walked outside, Maria and Hill walking behind them. "Besides, we have our reasons."

Before Maria could ask what he meant, Phil interrupted her:

"Doctor Selvig read an energy surge in the tesseract four hours ago. It wasn't as bad as the last one who made the entire building shake. Therefore I initiated the evacuation just in case," he said, earning a nod from Fury.

"Good. Safety first. Though, Selvig's not allowed to test the Tesseract again," said Fury, glancing at Phil.

"He wasn't testing it. He wasn't even in the room when the first spike happened," said Phil. "It was a spontaneous event."

"It just turned itself on?" asked Hill.

"What are the energy levels now?" asked Fury.

"Climbing and we can't shut it down," replied Maria.

"How long before everyone's out?" asked Fury.

"Campus should be clear within the next half hour," said Phil.

"Do better," ordered Fury, earning nods from Maria and Phil as they removed themselves from the group. However, Fury turned his head towards them again. "Dalton, you're with me."

Maria exchanged a quick, puzzled, look with Phil. It was not until Phil nodded his head towards Maria, silently telling her to hurry up that she ran after Hill and Fury, joining them on their walk down to the lab.

"Sir, evacuation may be futile," said Hill as the three of them neared the stairs that led down into the lab in which the cube was located in.

"Should we tell them to go back to sleep?" asked Fury, starting the descent down the stairs.

"If we cannot control the Tesseract's energy, there may not be a minimum safe distance," said Hill, Maria's heart sinking at her words.

"I need you to make sure that the phase 2 prototypes are shipped out," said Fury to Hill, making Maria furrow her brow.

What's the phase 2 prototypes?

"Sir, is that really a priority right now?" asked Hill, her tone towards the director making Maria raise an eyebrow at her.

"Until such time that the world ends we will act as if it intends to spin on," said Fury, turning towards Hill the moment they were down the stairs. "Clear out the tech below. Make sure that every part of phase 2 are on a truck and gone. Copy?"

"Yes, sir," said Hill monotonously as she passed him by, walking past the door that led into the lab and asking for a few other agents to come with her.

"Dalton, follow me," said Fury before he entered the lab, Maria quickly following.

The lab was huge and filled with screens, computers and technology which Maria had never seen herself. She didn't actually have clearance to be down there since she wasn't officially an agent yet which meant that she wasn't even past level 1 clearance and that only made the lab more exciting to her.

"Talk to me doc," said Fury as he walked up to a man in his late forties who immediately turned his head towards him.

"Director!" he greeted, walking away from a strange contraption that was set up in the middle of the room, agents in the same suits that Coulson wore standing around it, guarding it.

"Is there anything we know for certain?" asked Fury.

"The Tesseract is misbehaving," said doctor Selvig as he walked over to them, nodding his head at Maria before turning his attention towards Fury again. They had never met, though Maria had seen pictures of him in files and reports about Thor and the latest events that happened when the Norse God had come to Earth.

"It that supposed to be funny?" asked Fury.

"No, it's not funny at all," said doctor Selvig, both men now standing opposite each other while Maria stood behind Fury, listening and feeling unsure about what exactly she was doing there. "The Tesseract is not only active, it's behaving."

"I assume you've pulled the plug?" asked Fury as he and Selvig started walking towards the contraption in the middle of the room, Maria following them.

"She's an energy source. We turn off the power, she turns it back on," said Selvig, stopping in front of the contraption. "If she reaches speak level-"

"You've prepared for this, doctor; harnessing energy from space," said Fury as Maria took a step closer to the contraption, seeing the small cube inside of it, glowing with a strange blue light.

The contraption seemed to be something that could take and use the energy that the Tesseract was creating. She had heard of this; that SHIELD was starting to build something that could give the world an unlimited energy-source though something felt off about it. After all, wasn't SHIELD simply a spy agency that protected the world? Weren't they supposed to only do that and not make things that could make the world a better place? Wasn't that Stark's field of expertise? Where was he then?

"We don't have the harness," confessed Selvig. "My calculations are far from complete. She's throwing of interference, radiation. Nothing harmful. Low levels of gamma radiation."

"That can be harmful," said Fury, earning a look from Maria as she knew what he was thinking about. The incident with Bruce Banner, of course. "Where's agent Barton?"

"The hawk? Up in his nest, as usual," said Selvig, pointing towards the back of the room with his thumb before he walked over to a computer, checking some of the vitals on it while Fury and Maria walked to the back of the room.

There were a couple of iron stairs that led up to an elevated space on which someone could stand and look out over the entire lab. And someone was. Clint Barton quickly came downstairs as Fury called for him, walking up to them with confident steps and a serious look on his face.

"Director," said Clint before looking at Maria. "Pupil."

Maria smirked slightly before growing serious again as Fury continued talking.

"I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things," said Fury, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Oh I see better from a distance," said Clint, his eyes on Fury.

"Seen anything that might have set this thing off?" asked Fury.

"No one's come or gone," said Clint as the three of them turned back towards the contraption that held the cube before walking towards it once again. "Selvig's clean. No contacts, no messages. If tempering's the reason, it's not from this side."

"'This side'?" asked Fury before Clint looked at Maria.

"Well, it's a doorway, isn't it?" asked Maria, feeling the urge to speak which, by the content look on Clint's face, was what he had wanted her to do as well.

"Yes, a doorway to the other end of space," continued Clint before diverting his eyes back to the cube. "Doors open from both sides."

Suddenly, the ground started shaking as a flash of light appeared from the cube. Maria tensed and grabbed a hold of her sword, though didn't take it out. The shaking of the ground felt the same as earlier, however, it didn't stop this time. Instead, the flashes of light that came from the cube continued just like the shaking and soon, a spike of blue light was cast towards an empty space in the room. Maria had to look away from it in order to not hurt her eyes but she soon looked back and saw a figure now crouching where the blue light of the tesseract had been shot at. Although the blue light was not gone. Instead, it had shot up towards the ceiling, almost as if there was a speck of energy left that wanted to get out, but couldn't because of the ceiling.

The agents that had been guarding the contraption for the cube took out their guns and pointed it at the figure while Clint, Fury and Maria stayed put, staring at him. He had strange clothes on made out of leather with the colors black, green and a speck of gold in it. In his hand he held a spear of sorts with a small, blue stone attached to the top of his spear. It had the same glow as the Tesseract, though Maria doubted that it was the same power as it had a slightly brighter color. It seemed more dull, more dangerous… And a part of her felt drawn to it as though it meant something to her.

As he stood up, he seemed to be human. At least, humanoid. His black hair was slicked back yet still looked tousled and his pale face and strange smile made him look hostile.

"Sir, please put down the spear," said Fury, a sentence that made the figure look down at the spear he was holding in his hand before his smirk grew wider and he pointed it right at them.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading! Don't forget to let me know what you thought by leaving a comment!**


	5. Chapter 5, Assemble the Avengers

_Chapter rewritten, 2017_

 **Make you feel my love, Book I**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Marvel or any of its characters or movies/series. All I own is my own OC and  her story.

* * *

 **~ Chapter 5 ~  
Assemble the Avengers**

A bright light appeared on the spear the strange man was pointing at them, and for a moment it looked simply beautiful to Maria. Until it came hurdling towards them. Clint quickly reacted by grabbing the director and pushing him away, as the light came hurdling towards him, though he didn't have time to grab Maria. The light brushed past her, however, and simply grazed her arm, burning through her suit and some of the skin. She hissed but she didn't have time to comprehend the pain as the light hit the wall behind her, exploding on impact and making Maria fall forwards, her back burning with pain after the explosion.

Her ears were ringing as she lay there though she still heard the vague sounds of bullets rippling through the air and something inside of her wished for the man that had shot towards her, to die. It was that same familiar sense of rage and pure control that she abhorred so much from her past.

She lifted her head up slightly once the ringing stopped, barely noticing the burning sensation on her back and on her arm as she watched the man from the Tesseract attack the agents, taking them down one by one with ease. The bullets that were shot towards him didn't even touch him. It was as though they simply bounced off of him. He was most certainly not human.

Clint ran over to Maria and said something to her but she couldn't hear what he said as the sounds around her still sounded distant, almost as if she was under water. He gave her a worried look when she didn't reply, his eyes glancing at her back before returning to her face again. Carefully, he placed his hands on her cheeks and seemed to relax when she raised her eyebrows in a questioning way, signalling to him that she was there, just deaf at the moment.

Suddenly, the man from the Tesseract appeared in front of them to which Clint stood up, grasping for his gun that was attached to his upper leg, but failing as the man grabbed his arm, holding it tightly.

Maria tried to get up, grab her sword and help Clint get away from the man, but couldn't as the pain in her back was too much to bear whenever she moved. Her hearing started to come back to her more and more and she could faintly hear the man say to Clint: "You have heart," before he placed the end of the spear against his chest, a small glow appearing at the tip of the spear. The glow turned into a vague, blue light which was soon mirrored in Clint's eyes and suddenly, Clint stopped struggling against the man's grip.

"Clint…" she whispered as she heaved herself up so that she was standing on her knees and hands, looking up and ignoring the pain as much as possible.

As Clint placed his gun back into its holster, the man looked down at Maria. For a moment, he inspected her entire body, noticing the sword that hung from her belt. However, he didn't make a move towards her. Something inside of his eyes told Maria that he wasn't impressed with her. Most likely, he saw her as weak and not worth his time to take down in the same way as Clint.

Instead, the man turned back to the remaining agents, placing his spear against their chests as well, the blue light appearing in their eyes each time he did. It made her heart race as she realized what he was doing: Taking control of their minds.

"Let them be," she whimpered, not even being heard by the man.

"Please don't," he said, confusing Maria though realizing that he wasn't talking to her when he turned away from her to look at Fury.

He was on his way away from the man with a case in his hands. She immediately realized the case held the Tesseract as the blue light in the contraption meant for it, was gone.

"I still need that," said the man.

"This doesn't have to get any messier," said Fury.

"Of course it does," said the man. "I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki, of Asgard. And I am burdened with glorious purpose."

"Loki? Brother of Thor?" asked Selvig, revealing himself to still be alive and without mind control. His question seemed to strike Loki deep as he looked back at the doctor with annoyance in his eyes.

"We have no quarrel with your people," declared Fury as Maria sat down instead, taking out her dagger and mentally preparing herself for a fight, even though her entire body hurt.

"An ant has no quarrel with a boot," said Loki, earning a glare from Maria.

"You planning to step on us?" asked Fury, glancing over at Maria and seeing the dagger in her hands.

"I come with glad tidings," said Loki as he approached Selvig. "Of a world made free."

"Free from what?" asked Fury.

"Freedom," replied Loki, turning towards Selvig. "Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that… in your heart…" At this point, Loki had quickly placed the tip of his spear against Selvig's chest, taking control of him as well while Maria hurried to stand up, quietly. "You will know peace."

"Yeah, you say peace… I kind of think you mean the other thing," said Fury just as Maria threw her dagger at Loki's head.

However, he caught it with his hand without even her way. "Pathetic," he said, letting it fall to the floor as he started closing in on her. Maria took out her sword, lifting it up and holding it in front of her. The pain in her back and arm subdued and she could once again focus completely on Loki.

"Sir, director Fury is stalling us," said Clint as he walked over to Loki, making him stop his approach towards Maria. "This place is about to blow. It'll drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us."

Maria exchanged a look with Fury, only now realizing that that was what he had been doing.

"Like the pharaohs of old," said Fury.

"He's right. The portal is collapsing in on itself. We've got maybe two minutes until this goes critical," said Selvig, as he stood by one of the computers.

"Well then," said Loki, turning his head towards Clint who immediately took out his gun and shot Fury in the chest.

Maria gasped before charging towards them, a tight grip on her sword, however, the moment she got close to them, Clint grabbed a hold of her sword, by the pointy end even, and jerked it away from her before punching her in the face, once again making her fall over. This time, she hit her head on the floor badly. Her world started to spin and she felt nauseated. A hand gently pressed against her forehead, fingers opening her eyes to check on her before she heard: "Hill, do you copy? Barton's switched sides."

She was lifted up by the arm, someone placing her arm over their shoulders as her feet were forced to walk beside them. Her world continued to spin and she could feel her stomach lurching, though she fought against her lunch which wanted to get out, groaning in the process.

The cold and fresh air suddenly touched her skin again before the sound of a helicopter was heard. She was pushed inside of something, falling back into a seat, before she felt the familiar feeling of taking off from the ground. Her world started to spin slower and she could start seeing things again, although her vision still wobbled. Her heart felt heavy as she thought back at the past minutes, remembering how futile her resistance had been and remembering just how pathetic they had been as well. She truly didn't feel like superhero material.

At the sound of bullets being fired, Maria looked over to her left, seeing Fury leaning out of the open door with a gun in his hand. She tried to move towards him to see what he was shooting at, but her stomach turned when she moved and so, she decided to let it be.

It wasn't until a flash of familiar, blue light appeared outside of the small window besides her, that she moved. The helicopter jerked, an alarm going off in the by the controls, the pilot let out a scream…

"Jump!" called Fury, over the sound of something exploding as he grabbed her arm and pulled her with him out of the helicopter.

It was a bit of a fall, though neither of them got too hurt. Fury and Maria rolled on the ground once they had landed to soften the blow as much as they could, the helicopter smashing into the ground further away from them. Fury glanced back at Maria once before looking back at the truck that was driving away from them.

"Loki…" explained Fury, nodding towards the vehicle. "He's got the Tesseract."

"Shit," said Maria, both because she nearly threw up and because they now had an Asgardian enemy on the surface of the Earth with an unlimited energy source that no one really had any idea of what else it could do.

"Director?" asked Phil's voice over the com. "Director Fury do you copy?"

"The Tesseract is with a hostile force. I have agents down," said Fury, glancing back at Maria who tried to stand up just like Fury, but failing as her balance wasn't back yet. Fury then glanced back at the pilot of the helicopter that was still in the now burning helicopter, not moving and bleeding profusely. "Hill?"

 _"A lot of men still under. I don't know how many survivors,"_ said Hill's voice.

"Set the general call. I want every living soul not working on rescuing people to look for that briefcase," said Fury.

 _"Roger that,"_ said Hill's voice.

"Coulson, get back to base," ordered Fury. "This is a level 7. As of right now. We are at war."

 _"What do we do?"_ asked Phil's voice as Fury turned back to Maria who finally managed to stand up.

"We assemble the Avengers."

* * *

 **Thank you for reading! Don't forget to let me know what you thought by leaving a comment!**


	6. Chapter 6, Meeting Captain Rogers

_Chapater rewritten, 2017_

 **Make You Feel My Love ~Book I~**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Marvel or any of its characters or movies/series. All I own is my own OC and  her story.

* * *

 **~ Chapter 6 ~  
Meeting Captain Rogers**

 _"Are you sure about this?"_

Maria stood in front of the mirror, putting on a pink t-shirt over her white bra.

"What else can I do? This is partly my fault, Matt. If I had done more than this Loki might had never gotten away," sighed Maria as she grabbed a hairbrush from her bag, starting to comb out her air-dried and tangled, dark hair.

 _"There are so many other options for you that don't involve you almost dying whenever you go on a mission."_

"Matt… I'm not even qualified to go to a school," she stated as she placed her hairbrush back in her bag, continuing to fix her hair with her fingers.

 _"Then go back to Hell's Kitchen and do so. There are many ways for adults to ta-"_

"Matt, please. I'm not interested in going back to school. I have abilities and skills taught to me by evil men, but that I can use for good. Maybe you think that, somehow, the world can be saved by law and order... But I don't," said Maria, glaring at her phone that was placed next to her bag. "I want to use them… My skills. It's just that I'm not meant for something as great as this. I'm no superhero. Superheroes are strong, heroic and… And without any flaws. The things I did…"

 _"You can erase those things by doing good things, Maria. Everyone can change. And yes, maybe you're not a superhero… but neither am I. And that doesn't keep us from doing what is right; Protect the people that need to be protected from evil."_

Maria sighed again, her glare softening into a softer look before she diverted her gaze to her reflection, staring at it with saddened eyes. "Maybe."

 _"If this is what you want to do… then you should do it. Never let your doubts be in the way of what you want to do."_

"Are you quoting me?" asked Maria with a giggle, the sound of Matt's chuckle coming from her phone.

 _"Just promise me that you'll call after this is all over, alright?"_

"I promise," said Maria, nodding her head although she knew he couldn't see it, at all.

The call ended and Maria turned the screen of her phone off, sighing as she did. She missed Matt terribly which was the reason for her calling him. Since she had started with her SHIELD training, she hadn't had much time to catch up with him in person, leaving them talking over only the phone or simply texting each other. Although they still were in contact, she wanted to meet him in person again, hang out with him and simply be friends again. But things were changing for Maria and sadly, that meant that she couldn't do the same things as before.

Grabbing her bag and looking over her apartment one last time to make sure that she had everything she needed while away on the mission, she left, locking the door behind her. Outside the building, a black SUV was already waiting for her. SHIELD's signature symbol was painted on it and she smiled as she opened the door to the front seat, sitting down next to Coulson who was sitting behind the wheel.

"You ready?" asked Coulson, a soft look on his face as Maria placed her bag by her feet.

"Yes," said Maria, nodding her head once before Coulson put his foot on the gas pedal and drove off.

Coulson drove all the way to the other side of Midtown. Because the traffic was heavy during the day, it took some time but eventually they arrived at their destination. Maria, however, was slightly baffled by the fact that they weren't at any sort of airport or somewhere where a plane could lift off. Instead, he had parked the car by the side of the street, beside some apartment buildings.

Maria glanced over at Coulson who simply stayed in the car, waiting.

"Where are we, Phil?" asked Maria, making him smirk.

"I got a call an hour ago from Fury, telling me to pick up one more person," he said, sounding rather enthusiastic.

"Who?" asked Maria, furrowing her brow.

Coulson smiled widely as he looked at something past her before immediately stepping out of the car, rounding it and walking up to a tall, muscular man with blonde hair and a kind smile on his face. Her curiosity towards the man made her step out of the car as well, the sound of the car door closing causing the man to look over at her, his smile fading slightly as if he was shocked to see her. She didn't quite understand why and immediately started to fiddle with the hem of her jumper, swaying her bag back and forth as the two men walked towards her.

"Maria, this is Steve Rogers," said Coulson, Maria immediately widening her eyes. "Captain Rogers, this is Maria Dalton, soon to be an agent of SHIELD."

Of course, she thought. She had seen the pictures, she had learned about him, she had heard Coulson talk about him yet she hadn't recognized him at all. He looked different in real life, as everyone did, and for some reason, she felt drawn to him. Something about him made her want to touch his face, hold him and have him all for herself and it scared her. Never in her life had she ever felt that drawn to a man before and it was such an intense feeling that it completely terrified her.

"Nice meeting you, ma'am," greeted Steve, stretching out a hand towards her.

She shook her thoughts away, trying her hardest to also push the feelings away, as she shook his hand. The strong grasp he had on her hand made her heart flutter.

"I read about you last night. Impressive," said Steve, offering a smile at her.

"You read everything they have on me?" asked Maria quietly.

"Yes," said Steve as Maria looked away slightly. "But I only care about the good things, I assure you that."

Maria nodded slightly, avoiding eye contact with the super soldier as she turned back to the car.

"I'll let you sit in the front, captain," said Maria, her hand reaching out to open the car door. However, someone's hand managed to grab the handle before her, making her look up at none other than Steve himself as he opened the back door for her with a soft and apologetic smile on his face.

"Thank you," she whispered as she smiled back at him, a blush appearing on her cheeks as his apologetic smile turned into a relieved smile, almost as if he had thought that Maria had been very upset with him because he had read about her when in fact, Maria had been upset with herself as she hated her past, wanting to have nothing to do with it anymore which was impossible because of SHIELD.

The ride to the plane that was picking all three of them up was rather uncomfortable for Maria. Mostly because Phil was rather awkward around Captain America, him being a huge fan. Though, that was something that he had yet to reveal to him. Instead, he talked about different things which Steve had missed during his time in the ice as they passed them in Midtown. Houses being built or monuments being raised for something particular which Steve didn't know of.

From time to time, Maria could see Steve's face fall slightly as Phil would look away from him. She could see that he was still in shock about suddenly being in a new world, not being dead and being unfamiliar in the world he grew up in. Of course, Midtown wasn't the place where he grew up, but it was still on this Earth and the planet had changed a lot during those 70 years. A lot.

"What about you, ma'am?" asked Steve, turning his head slightly in order to show that he was indeed addressing her. However, she had no idea what they were talking about as she hadn't been listening.

"Sorry?" she asked, blushing slightly.

"Have you ever been to Central Park?" asked Steve.

"Why, yes, I have," said Maria. "I used to go there with my grandmother during holidays and, depending on what season it was, we'd do different kind of activities. During the winter holiday's we'd go ice skating."

"That sounds lovely," said Steve, smiling.

"I didn't know you're that close to your grandmother?" asked Phil.

Maria's smile faded slightly. "I was. Kind of took the role of my mother after the, uh, divorce."

"You lived with your father after the divorce?" asked Steve.

"No, my mother," said Maria, silence enclosing on the car. "It didn't say that in the file?"

"No, ma'am. It didn't say very much about your childhood," said Steve.

"Please, Steve. Call me Maria," said Maria, leaning forwards slightly as she spoke to him. "Why are we talking about Central Park?"

"I mentioned it to Captain Rogers and he said he had never been there," said Phil, earning a puzzled look from Maria before she turned her gaze to Steve.

"If you want, I can take you there some day. After our mission of course," said Maria, earning a grateful smile from Steve.

"I'd like that," said Steve.

The plane they entered was most certainly one of SHIELD's jets. It was painted a dark color and the same eagle symbol was painted on it. Maria greeted the pilot, recognizing him from one of her training sessions, before she sat down, Steve sitting down on the opposite side of the plane. He glanced at her every now and then while Phil watched over the pilot as he lifted the plane. In his hand was a walkie-talkie in which he from time to time spoke a word, as if he was debriefing someone at the other end of the line on the start of their voyage.

For some reason, the silence between Steve and Maria felt odd as she herself kept glancing at him as well. She badly wanted to speak to him but there was no actual thing to talk about as she didn't know what interested him. Of course, she could start a conversation based of something that interested her, but what if he didn't like what she was interested in? What if she accidentally offended him?

Instead, she decided to take on the one thing she knew they had both in common.

"Captain Rogers, did you have enough time to read through all the information there is on the entire team?" asked Maria, finally breaking the silence and causing his beautiful, blue eyes to look over at her innocently.

"Not all of it," said Steve, shaking his head and making Maria smile.

"Neither did I," said Maria as she placed her bag on the seat next to her before standing up, walking over to where she knew a PAD was lying with all the information on it that they needed to get to know each other and the mission at hand. With it in her hands, she walked over to where Steve was sitting, slowly sitting down next to him and immediately feeling her heart racing as she got to sit that close to him. "Here," she said as she turned the PAD on, smiling softly at the wondrous look on Steve's face as the see-through piece of glass suddenly had files on them, showing videos and pictures of everything and everyone on the team.

"So, our team consists of doctor Banner, Howard Stark's son," said Steve, the last name making Maria smile. "Agents Clint Barton and agent Natasha Romanoff."

"And us," said Maria, nodding her head as she opened the file of herself and Steve simultaneously so that they were both opened next to each other.

She frowned slightly at the link in her file that would lead one on to the file of her past, a thick and dark file, before she looked over at Steve's file. Under the column about his past, there were heroic deeds and a list of sicknesses that he used to have before becoming the super soldier and although his past had some sad sides to it, it seemed more like the past of a hero than hers.

Suddenly, Steve's finger appeared in her line of vision as he pressed the close button before pressing Tony's file, inspecting it quickly. Maria watched him as he leaned in closer in order to see better and felt her heart flutter as she could feel the touch of his breath against her hand holding the PAD. Something inside of her wished for him to place his hand on hers, to be held by him and to be with him but she knew he wouldn't do anything of that sort. Mostly because they had just met. But also because she had read his file; she had read about Peggy and that woman had been beautiful not to mention heroic. After all, she and Howard Stark were the founders of SHIELD. Never in her life could Maria live up to those standards, not with her past and not with her weak abilities.

These thoughts made her eyes wander over to her bag, seeing the outlines of her sword that she had placed in there. Apart from her sword, she had also brought along her suit and a couple of extra pairs of underwear, in case this was going to be a long mission.

"So, this doctor Banner tried to replicate the serum they used on me?" asked Steve, startling Maria slightly as she had been staring at her bag for so long that her mind had wandered away into her own little world.

"A lot of people were. You were the world's first superhero," answered Phil as he walked over to them. "Banner thought that gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula."

"It didn't really go his way, did it?" said Steve as a video of the Hulk appeared on the PAD that Maria was still holding. She had even missed when Steve went into Bruce's file! How long had she been in her own world?

"No," replied Maria, shaking her head.

"When he's not that thing though, the guy's like a Stephen Hawking," said Phil, Steve looking up at Phil with confused and naïve eyes which only made him look even cuter than he already had done.

"Stephen Hawking's a very smart person alive today," explained Maria, earning the attention of Steve as he directed his confused eyes to her. "In my opinion, smarter than Stark."

"Just don't tell that to Mr. Stark," said Phil, earning a giggle from Maria.

As Maria looked back to Steve to see if he had understood what she meant, he had a wide smile on his face and an unreadable look in his eyes. Something about the look made Maria blush and the moment she felt her cheeks warm up, she looked away from Steve and back to the video of the Hulk, flicking her finger over the screen to make it turn itself off. She grabbed the PAD and placed it by her feet, carefully as to not break the screen.

"I gotta say," said Phil, making both Maria and Steve look up at him. "It's an honor to meet you, officially." Steve's face lit up at his words. "I sort of met you, I mean… I watched you while you were sleeping."

Maria's mouth opened slightly in pure shock at his words while the most uncomfortable atmosphere surrounded the three of them after his words. In a way, it was because of what Phil had said, though something told Maria that Steve didn't feel uncomfortable because of that. No, he felt uncomfortable because Phil had just reminded him of the fact that he had been asleep for seventy years and that everyone he knew, was dead now. At least, most of them.

"I mean… I was present while you were unconscious," said Phil, stammering slightly as Steve stood up, the warmth of his body near Maria going away which made her pout slightly. "… from the ice… You know, it's really, just a- a huge honor to have you onboard."

"I hope I'm the man for the job," said Steve as he looked out through the small windows that surrounded the pilot's seat.

"You are. Absolutely," said Phil, nodding his head as the uncomfortable atmosphere slowly faded away. Maria herself stood up as well, walking over to her bag. "We made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input."

"The uniform?" asked Steve, bewildered as Maria opened her bag, taking out her sword as it rested in her holster, inspecting it. "Aren't the stars and stripes a little… old fashioned?"

"With everything that's happening… the things that are about to come to light," said Phil as Maria took out her sword from its holster, holding it up against the light and seeing her reflection in it. "People might just need a little… old fashioned."

Maria looked over at the two men as they both stared at her and her sword. Steve had an amazed look on his face while Phil had a smirk playing on his lips. Had he referred to her as well?

"Hey!" she said playfully, pouting slightly as Phil chuckled.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading! Don't forget to let me know what you thought by leaving a comment!**


	7. Chapter 7, Loki Detected

_Chapter rewritten, 2017_

 **Make You Feel My Love ~Book I~**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Marvel or any of its characters or movies/series. All I own is my own OC and  her story.

* * *

 **~ Chapter 7 ~  
Loki Detected**

The jet landed on a ship large enough to have an entire fleet of jets land on it simultaneously. Maria briefly wondered how many people were on the ship as the doors of the jet they were still in, opened for them to step outside. Phil was behind them, watching them both stare at everything with amazed eyes. There were agents going for a run, there were agents in suits walking around with quick steps and there were multiple jets taking off and landing on the landing area. It all amazed Maria and she couldn't even begin to imagine how amazed Steve must feel about this entire ordeal as he hadn't even heard about computers a few weeks ago.

"Agent Romanoff," said Phil from behind Steve and Maria, making them both snap back to reality, both gazes landing on a beautiful woman walking over to them. "This is Captain Rogers and Miss Dalton."

"Ah, yes. My partner's new pupil," said Natasha, eyeing her up and down. "Sorry for the bad start of your supervision period."

"Yeah… sucks," said Maria, feeling intimidated by the gorgeous and strong woman standing in front of her.

"At least your S.O. isn't a creep," said Natasha, smirking slightly before diverting her eyes to Steve.

"Ma'am," greeted Steve.

"Hi," said Natasha simply before diverting her eyes back to Phil. "They need you on the bridge."

"See you there," said Phil as he walked past Steve, Maria and Natasha.

"There was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice," said Natasha as the three of them started to walk away from the jet, Maria clasping her bag close to her. "Thought Coulson was gonna swoon."

Maria smirked at her words though her humor wasn't making her more at ease with her which she hated. Her entire life, women had intimidated her. Maybe it was because she herself didn't feel as beautiful as the rest, or maybe it had something to do with the fact that the school she went to wasn't a school with the kindest of girls in it and something inside of her never really had let it go. Or perhaps… it was her mother.

"Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?" asked Natasha, making Steve look at her, bewildered.

"Trading cards?" asked Steve, a slightly amused tone being heard in his voice.

"They're vintage. He's very proud," said Natasha before she stopped walking as she nodded towards a man in front of them.

The man was standing by one of the jets that had landed after Maria and Steve, looking very confused as he kept turning around on the spot. He was dressed in a dark, greyish, suit with a purple shirt underneath, glasses on his nose and shiny shoes.

"Doctor Banner," greeted Steve, making the man look at them.

Once again, Maria mentally slapped herself at the fact that she hadn't recognized the man. Something told her that she had to start working on her memory a little bit. At least when it came to face recognition. Though, the complete truth was that there weren't many pictures of Bruce himself. Instead, the Hulk was often shown more than the person behind the beast. She briefly wondered if that was because people only wanted the Hulk to be a part of the team. Though Maria doubted it as Bruce had a lot of potential to help as well.

"Oh, yeah, hi," said Bruce, shaking Steve's hand. "They told me you'd be coming."

"Word is you can find the cube," said Steve, letting go of the man. Although there would've been a very awkward atmosphere between them, since Bruce became that beast because of Steve in a way, Steve waved the atmosphere off by smiling friendly towards him.

"Is that the only word of me?" asked Bruce, earning a nod from Steve.

"The only word I care about," said Steve, earning a soft smile from Bruce before he turned his gaze over to Maria.

"Miss Dalton, I presume?"

"Yes, that's me but please, call me Maria," said Maria as she offered his hand to him.

"Nice meeting you, Maria. I've heard a lot about you," said Bruce, shaking her hand. It felt oddly soft compared to what she had thought and it seemed as though he didn't really use all his strength in the handshake either, but it felt warm and kind either way.

"You read the file, I suppose?" asked Maria, letting go of his hand and looking down at the ground.

"Yes. But I also read the papers," said Bruce, taking off his glasses while Maria's gaze was diverted up to him. "The mystery woman and the man in the black mask? Not so mysterious to me anymore."

Maria smiled at him, thanking him for not caring about her past, not openly towards her anyway.

"I suppose we're not allowed to know who the man in the mask is?" asked Bruce, Steve looking between them with confused eyes. Of course, the man in the mask hadn't been in her file since SHIELD didn't have anything on Matt yet. Hopefully, if Matt got his way, they never would either.

"Sorry. That's between me and him," said Maria, earning a smile from Bruce.

"Must be strange for the both of you, all of this. Especially for you, Steve," said Bruce as Maria shrugged, looking over at Steve expectantly.

"Actually," said Steve, his eyes looking over at a pair of trainees that were jogging, their trainer running along with them. "This is kind of familiar."

The three of them started walking towards the edge of the ship while Natasha walked behind them, talking into her ear piece.

"Gentleman, lady, you may wanna step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breathe," said Natasha, earning confused looks from Maria, Bruce and Steve.

Quickly, Maria jogged over to the edge, double checking to make sure that this indeed was a ship as the sound of metal clanking was heard along with orders being barked all over to the agents about them having to secure the deck.

Maria gasped as she saw the water beside the boat suddenly start to move.

"Is this a submarine?" asked Steve as he and Bruce walked over to stand next to Maria.

"Really? They want me in a submerged, pressurized, metal container?" asked Bruce, both men now standing on either side of Maria.

"No, it's not a submarine," said Maria, pointing downwards towards the water surface where now two huge and round propellers had appeared, slowly beginning to start working which caused water to splash up towards the three of them.

When the "ship" started to lift up from the water surface, the ground beneath their feet shook and Maria grabbed a hold of Steve's leather jacket absentmindedly as there was no railing to hold on to.

"Oh no, this is much worse," said Bruce sarcastically as wind started to blow against their faces, causing them to back away from the edge.

"Shall we go inside then?" offered Natasha with a smirk playing on her lips before she turned around, walking towards the other side of the landing area.

"A helicarrier?" asked Maria when the three of them followed Natasha. "I didn't even know SHIELD had these kind of things!"

"I have a feeling there's a lot we don't know about SHIELD," said Bruce.

Suddenly, Maria noticed her fingers starting to hurt in her left hand and she quickly looked down only to find her fingers still grasping Steve's leather jacket tightly. She let go the moment she noticed this and blushed deeply, looking up at Steve's face and seeing that he wasn't showing any kind of emotions against it. He didn't even look at her. Maybe he hadn't noticed or maybe, he didn't care. Either way, Maria cursed herself quietly for doing so.

* * *

The room that she had for the time she spent on the helicarrier was nothing special. Most likely, it looked just like the rest of the rooms with a simple bed in it, a desk and a wardrobe. There was a PAD placed on the desk and a pen with some paper placed next to it. But apart from the lamp on the wall and on her bedside table, there was no other decoration. There wasn't even a window though she understood why since her room was placed on one of the bottom levels which meant it was right underneath the propellers and it would most likely be very hard to isolate the room from sound with a window in it. After all, no one wanted to hear the noise form the helicarrier while they were trying to sleep, right?

She unpacked her things, placing the extra shirt and extra underwear she had brought with her in the wardrobe along with her suit and sword. Her dagger, however, she placed inside of her boot, not risking going anywhere without some form of weapon and since she was very bad at aiming a gun, she stuck to knives. With a last look in the mirror, she walked outside, knowing that Steve and Bruce were going to be on the bridge as they hadn't decided to go to their rooms yet. Instead, they had followed Natasha while Maria insisted on unpacking the very few things she had, before joining them.

She made her way over to the bridge quickly, only having to ask for directions once which she was very proud off.

"Miss Dalton," greeted Fury as she entered the bridge, smiling at her amazed look as she looked around. The bridge was almost as amazingly high tech as the rest of the helicarrier, apart from her room, and she couldn't help but look all around herself with wide eyes.

"How are you feeling?" asked Fury, earning a confused look from Maria. "Your back and arm were burned by Loki, remember?"

Maria's entire world felt like it was about to crumble over her. She had completely forgotten about that and yet, she wasn't feeling any kind of pain or uneasy feelings on her back.

"I…"

"You don't feel it, do you?" asked Fury, narrowing his eyes.

"I can't even see it. It's just gone… I mean, I took a shower before I came here but… I didn't even see…" said Maria, furrowing her brow. "Must have been some kind of illusion, the pain that is."

This time, Fury furrowed his brow, staring at her with his eye for a long time before he simply nodded and walked away from her, leaving her there puzzled. However, she soon found two familiar faces which made her walk over to them.

"… I mean, if it's not too much trouble," said Phil as he mirrored Steve's posture, arms crossed over his chest and looking out over the working agents.

"No, no, it's fine," said Steve, glancing at Maria and frowning slightly before returning his gaze towards Phil.

"It's a vintage set," said Phil, causing Maria to smile as she stopped next to Steve, clasping her hands behind her back. "Took me a couple of years to collect them all. Near mint. Slight miscol-"

"Sir, we got a hit!" said an agent, Sitwell, close by as he turned to Fury, causing Phil, Steve and Maria to look over at him. "67 percent match. Wait, cross match, 79 percent."

"Location?" asked Phil as he walked oved to the agent.

"Stuttgart, Germany," said Sitwell. "28th Königstrasse. He's not exactly hiding."

"Captain. Miss," said Fury, making Maria and Steve look back at the director. "You're up."

Maria sighed quietly, her heart beating faster as she realized that their mission was beginning. They had to stop Loki and his mind controlled followers before they did something bad, which they most certainly were going to do since Loki believed that freedom was when freedom was not there. Something that still confused Maria as to why someone would even believe that.

Quickly, they both exited the bridge, walking with a swift pace towards the corridor where their rooms were.

"You alright?" asked Steve as they walked together, quickly nearing Maria's room which was right next to Steve's.

"Yes. Why?" asked Maria, confused by his question.

"Whatever Fury told you made you look worried," said Steve as they stopped in front of Maria's door.

"It's nothing," said Maria, smiling a warm smile at him and hoping he'd let it go. After all, he had his own problems which were much worse than hers to worry about and she didn't want him to worry about her. Although, it was sweet of him to think about her. "Just… nervous for my first mission."

"Don't be," said Steve, placing a hand on Maria's shoulder as he smiled warmly at her. "You'll do fine."

"I hope so… I don't have much to offer though… except my sword," said Maria, shrugging as she tried to calm herself down even though Steve was _touching_ her willingly.

"And I have a shield," said Steve before chuckling which made Maria smile. "We're both equally useless."

"No, don't say that," said Maria, placing her hand over his on her shoulder. "You're an actual superhero. Me, I'm just someone who doesn't have anything better to do with their life."

"It's a brave thing to do, getting yourself out there like that. You could get hurt. Most people would search for a job," said Steve, his fingers suddenly intertwining with hers as she moved his hand towards her neck, squeezing it comfortingly and resting her chin against it.

"Thanks…" she said quietly before letting go of his hand. "Now, go change. We can't come late to our first mission as a team."

Steve smiled before nodding his head and turning around, not noticing Maria lean against her door as she took several deep breaths in order to not faint from the swoony feeling he created inside of her.

That man, was going to steal her heart whether he wanted to or not.

Or maybe he already had stolen her heart.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading! Don't forget to let me know what you thought by leaving a comment!**


	8. Chapter 8, Loki Captured

_Chapter rewritten, 2017_

* * *

 **Make You Feel My Love ~Book I~**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Marvel or any of its characters or movies/series. All I own is my own OC and  her story.

* * *

 **~ Chapter 8 ~  
Loki Captured**

"How long until we reach Stuttgart?" asked Steve as he boarded the jet, suit on and shield in his hand.

Maria watched him with careful and interested eyes. Of course, she had seen pictures of Captain America in his suit before, but it was different seeing it in real life. It felt more heroic and more real and impressive, not to mention the fact that Maria could see his muscles through the suit since it was a tightfitting one. It reminded a lot of the one from the WWII. However, its colors were brighter and it was slightly more high-tech. While the shield was still the same.

"About six hours at maximum speed. We'll arrive just after sunset," said Natasha, closing the doors behind Steve and igniting the jet's engines.

Steve nodded his head as he sat down, placing his shield next to him while Maria sat on the opposite side of the jet once again, closing her eyes as she let her head lean back against the wall while Natasha lifted the jet and let it go up into its maximum speed.

It wasn't until the jet was flying at maximum speed that Maria opened her eyes again. She had never really enjoyed flying, especially not the jets that were _that_ fast, going over 2200 mph. Her gaze met the sight of Steve, looking down at the metal floor with an unreadable look on his face.

"You okay?" asked Maria, earning Steve's attention, who immediately placed a smile on his lips.

"Yeah, of course," he replied.

Maria simply nodded before standing up and walking over to Steve, knowing that what he said was a lie and knowing that it most certainly had something to do with the fact that this was the 21st century, and not his own time.

"I don't like flying either," said Maria, shrugging as she sat down in the same way she had done earlier that day, carefully and close by him. "Especially not when it's going this fast."

"How fast?" asked Steve, looking at her.

"Over 2200 mph, I think," said Maria, earning a puzzled look from Steve. "But that's just when they don't push the engines."

"Huh," said Steve. "In my days… that was called sci-fi."

"There's a lot of things out there in the world that used to be sci-fi," said Maria, nodding her head as he confirmed what she had thought was wrong from the beginning. "And there are a lot of things that are sci-fi today which people are working on making real. But that's just the way the world works, I suppose."

"Yeah," said Steve, once again looking down at the floor as he leaned his elbows on his knees, sighing quietly.

"You'll get used to it," said Maria.

"I don't know… I reckon I don't have a choice," said Steve, making Maria shrug, her heart sinking slightly at his words.

"I know of a few relatives of mine that don't even have Wi-Fi," said Maria which made Steve look over at her. "You've already passed them in understanding the world we live in."

At this, Steve smiled at her, grateful for her words although they probably didn't help a lot. In fact, Maria wasn't sure if Steve even knew what Wi-Fi was.

"Well, now that you know my problem… how about you tell the truth about your problem?" asked Steve, leaning back so that his back was straight again.

This time, it was Maria's turn to look down at the floor. She knew what he meant, though she didn't want to know what he meant. He hadn't believed her when she so expertly had diverted the question into something else earlier that day and she hated it. Although something inside of her felt the need to tell him as well even though she had barely known him for more than a day.

"I was there when the Tesseract was stolen," said Maria with a sigh.

"I heard that," said Steve, nodding. "I also heard you put up a fight."

"Not much of a fight really… After all," said Maria, taking out her sword from its holster that was attached to her belt. "This is all I have."

For a while, both she and Steve simply stared at their own reflections in the clean blade as Maria twirled it around a bit. There had been many blood stains on that very blade through the years which made her both hate it and love it at the same time. It had been a gift from one of her employees back in her darker days in Hell's Kitchen and although that employee was a bad guy, he had been nice to her. Very nice, in fact, towards her. He had told her that the blade was Russian made and that it could pierce anything, something she doubted.

"You're skilled with it," said Steve, making Maria jump out of her thoughts and come back to reality.

"Maybe… But it wasn't enough to get to Loki. I was hurt… twice… quite badly as well," said Maria, Steve's curious look turning into a worried one as he watched her slid the sword back into its holster. "But the wounds… the scars… they're just gone. Had it not been for Fury reminding me I had been hurt… I would've forgotten. And it scares me because I don't know what happened. I know I got burned… but maybe it was just an illusion created by that trickster. Maybe I was just imagining the pain…"

"Or?" asked Steve. "It sounds as though you're thinking of some other option as well."

"Or… I don't know everything about me yet," said Maria before she scoffed. "Though, that last option is very unlikely."

Steve shook his head as he looked Maria deep in the eye. "I once used to be a scrawny kid with no bright future ahead of me. No one looked at me twice and no one really noticed me. I had one friend and that was it. No family, no girl… Just me and my friend," said Steve. "And look at me now. I'm Captain America. I never intended to become something like that but I did. And you know what that proved to me?"

Maria shook her head.

"That even the smallest of things can do great deeds and that it's not actually the people that are born great that do great things. But it's the people that fight for something in which they believe that do great things," said Steve, a soft smile playing on his lips. "All you gotta do, is find the thing you fight for and you'll be as good as any other 'hero'."

"What do you fight for?" asked Maria, uncertain of what she fought for. Revenge? A place in the world?

"Freedom," replied Steve, his fingers brushing a few strands of hair away from Maria's face.

"Thanks…" said Maria, smiling softly. "For making me feel better."

"That's what friends do," said Steve, smiling sheepishly towards her to which she simply giggled.

* * *

They arrived six hours later, Natasha immediately slowing down the speed of the jet so that it was slowly searching the streets until they were at their destination. While she did this, Maria and Steve prepared themselves for a fight. Maria secured the holster of her sword to her utility belt, making sure it wouldn't fall off if she would get into a fight. Over her eyes she placed a black mask that suited her dark, purple outfit perfectly. SHIELD had made it for her and it fit her perfectly. The last thing she did, was secure her dagger onto her utility belt, just in case.

She watched Steve grab his shield and place it onto his right arm before looking over at Maria, nodding his head once.

"You guys ready?" asked Natasha, earning nods from both heroes. "Good, 'cause he's pointing his stick at an old man."

Steve furrowed his brow - although it was hard to see because of his mask - as the doors silently opened, the jet still hovering in the air. They both looked out, seeing the large crowd of people that all had been forced down onto their knees by _multiple_ Lokis. The only explanation for that was magic though Maria didn't quite believe in that theory.

"This is not happening again," said Steve quietly before he suddenly leaped out of the jet, landing in front of the man as Loki was about to shoot a ball of blue light at the old man, shielding both himself and the old man from the shot with his shield.

The shot deflected from the shield and hit Loki which made him fall to his knees, the crowd of people standing up and running away as the multiple other Loki's disappeared into thin air. Maria saw her chance to jump down when Steve stood up, watching Loki stand up slowly. She landed next to him and drew her sword, once again feeling useless as she had no idea how to fight a _god_.

"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing," said Steve as he approached Loki slowly, with Maria next to him.

"The soldier and the little girl," said Loki, making Maria narrow her eyes. "Barton's pupil and the man out of time."

"Oh, he's not the one who's out of time," said Maria as Natasha flew the jet closer to the ground, aiming the jet's weapons at the trickster.

 _"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down,"_ echoed Natasha's voice from the jet, however Loki almost immediately shot a ball of blue light towards the jet which Natasha luckily managed to dodge.

Steve threw his shield against Loki's head, making him stagger backwards while Steve caught his shield again and ran up towards Loki. Maria's heart was pounding as she followed him, pointing her sword towards Loki. However, she hesitated slightly as she saw Steve punch Loki, to which Loki didn't even react. It didn't even seem to bother him that Steve had just punched him on the jawline and it made her wonder if there was anything they could do to stop him. Loki punched Steve's shield once, making him stagger backwards at the force behind his punch before he punched him in the stomach which caused Steve to fly backwards and away from him.

Immediately, Maria attacked Loki, using all she had learned through her teenage years as she dodged, jumped and sliced Loki's arms as best as she could, though not doing much damage. At one point, Loki foresaw what she would do as she dodged another punch and managed to grab her lower arm. He squeezed her arm so hard that she let out a squawk of pain until she lost her grip on the sword. Loki leaned in against her face as the sound of her sword falling against the ground made Steve look over at them, groaning at the pain in his stomach. Loki's breath touched her face as she stared at him with wide eyes, noticing how he was even taller than Steve.

"I should have taken you under my control when I had the chance," said Loki through gritted teeth before he placed the tip of his spear against her chest.

However, before the blue light could even begin to appear on the spear, Steve kicked it away from her before punching Loki once again with his shield, this time making him stagger backwards and away from Maria. The moment Loki let go of her hand, she grasped her sword again, ignoring the pain she felt in her wrist and helping Steve fight against him again. Every time she tried to hurt Loki, he dodged her try before sending out a punch her way which she either managed to dodge or not. Each time she failed to dodge, Steve would throw a hard punch towards Loki which would make his focus divert to him instead, something Maria was grateful for as this was her first fight in a while and she did try to do the same for Steve when he got in the same predicament.

 _"The guy's all over the place,"_ said Natasha in their earpiece.

Suddenly, the sound of music was heard which made all three of them paus.

 _"Agent Romanoff, did you miss me?"_

Maria smirked as she finally saw the chance to get some of Loki's blood on her sword, which she managed to as well. Though, it was a little cut which barely even made it through his leather costume, it still made a small drop of blood stain her sword. The moment she did this, though, Loki used his foot to kick her away from him, making her land on the ground, hitting her head against the cement ground and hearing something crack. She groaned as her world once again started to spin while she heard the familiar sound of Iron Man's suit land nearby her.

"Make a move reindeer games," said Tony suddenly which made Maria look up from her position on the ground, seeing Loki on the ground and both Iron Man and Captain America standing in front of them, Tony pointing all his fire power towards the trickster who suddenly placed his hands in the air.

Using all her strength to not throw up from the spinning world around her, Maria stood up and joined the two heroes in standing in front of the bad guy, feeling the adrenaline leave her body slowly which made the pain she felt from the multiple punches and from her fall more and more evident with each second that passed by. She swayed slightly from the spinning world around her but tried her best to look calm and heroic, just like the others.

"Good move," said Tony as Loki made the armor he had on fade away, meaning his strange helmet to which Tony had referred earlier, his hands were though still in the air. "Captain," he then greeted Steve.

"Stark," greeted Steve back.

"Maria," said Tony, earning a forced smile from Maria.

"Sir," said Maria earning a scoff from Tony as his helmet opened up.

"Let's get this one inside the jet," said Tony, Natasha almost immediately landing the jet behind them, skillfully.

She walked outside with handcuffs in her hands which were, hopefully, strong enough to hold the god of mischief before she attached them to his hands, Tony grabbing him by the arm and leading him inside the jet. The adrenaline was now completely gone from Maria's body and she felt awful. Something wet and warm dripped down the back of her neck and a throbbing pain was there as well. As she tried to follow Steve, she wobbled slightly and almost immediately fell to the ground, earning the attention from Natasha who was still standing behind her.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asked as she crouched down next to Maria.

"Yeah, peachy," said Maria, rubbing her hand over the goo in the back of her neck before retrieving her hand and gasping.

"Shit, Maria," said Natasha, immediately grabbing her arm as she saw the blood that covered her hand.

"Oh…" she said, realizing the goo in the back of her neck was blood.

"Guys, I need help. Maria's down," said Natasha, her hand on her ear piece.

Maria watched Steve freeze as he was about to enter the jet before he quickly turned around. She felt awfully useless as Steve ran over to her, crouching down beside her and lifting up her long hair in order to see the wound better. He hissed quietly as he saw it, letting her hair fall back down carefully.

"We need to get you to a hospital," said Steve, earning a look from Maria and a nod from Natasha.

"No. Our mission was to bring Loki back," she said, talking suddenly becoming harder for her.

"Yes, but he's caught now. Your health is important as well," said Steve, placing an arm around her waist and lifting her up, bridal style. She was forced to support her head on her own which hurt, a lot, and she let out a groan of pain as her head bobbed backwards, the pain making it impossible for her to keep her head upright. "Nat."

Immediately, someone's hand lifted her head up, keeping it as still as possible. "Closest hospital?"

"No…" said Maria, shaking her head.

"Don't be ridiculous," said Tony as he appeared in front of her. "You're hurt."

"And Loki's more important than me," said Maria, her eyes trying her best to focus on Tony though he seemed to be moving around a lot. "We've got him. It's just six hours until we're back home."

"I can make it five," said Natasha, earning confused looks from Tony. "She's right. Loki's more important."

"Are you crazy?" asked Steve, his grip on Maria tightening suddenly.

"Believe me, Steve. She'll make it," said Natasha before she and Steve started moving towards the jet, as much in sync as possible in order for Natasha to keep Maria's head upright and as still as possible.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading! Don't forget to let me know what you thought by leaving a comment!**


	9. Chapter 9, Thor

_Chapter rewritten, 2017_

 **Make You Feel My Love ~Book I~**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Marvel or any of its characters or movies/series. All I own is my own OC and  her story.

* * *

 **~ Chapter 9 ~  
Thor**

"This is completely insane." The jet took off just as Steve crouched down next to a couple of seats on which Maria was lying down, her head resting on an opened parachute working as a pillow. A cloth was pressed against her wound on the back of her skull, held in place by Steve's hand. She still didn't know how bad the wound was, but the worried looks of her teammates made her worry that it was indeed very bad. "She's part of our team and she's bleeding heavily."

"And she'll make it," pressed Natasha, earning a glare form Steve and Tony.

"How can you be so goddamn sure about that?" asked Steve, an angry tone to his voice which made Maria lift her hand up to his cheek, surprising both herself and Steve. She let her hand brush against his cheek and the angry look on his face disappeared, instead being replaced by a soft one as his eyes met hers.

"I'll be fine. Five hours… remember? I'll be fine," urged Maria, glancing over at Loki who watched them all intently without saying anything.

"You keep saying that, but you've most certainly damaged your skull in some way, not to mention the fact that you have a concussion," said Tony, crossing his arms over his chest.

Maria simply looked back towards Steve, ignoring Tony for the time being as she simply enjoyed the fact that Steve was letting her touch his cheek and didn't even seem to mind it. However, her mind wandered back over to the picture of Peggy and she slowly let her hand fall back to her side, looking away from the super soldier.

 _"How'd the mission go?"_ asked Fury's voice over the com.

"We've captured Loki," reported Natasha, glancing back at Maria before continuing to brief the director. "Dalton's down. She needs immediate medical care the moment we arrive."

There was a long pause from Fury's side and something about this entire ordeal made Maria uneasy. Why was Natasha being so calm about her wounds and why was she constantly claiming that Maria was going to be okay when she herself felt her energy slip away from her? Did this have anything to do with the fact that her burned skin was healed by itself? And if it had something to do with that… what was it?

 _"I'll have a med-team ready for her when you land."_

"Thanks," said Steve, before standing up, looking over at Tony as he stood behind Natasha, watching her fly the jet.

 _"Is he saying anything?"_

"Not a word," replied Natasha back.

 _"Just get him here. We're low on time."_

"I don't like it," said Steve as he approached Tony.

"What? The fact that he's just giving up so easily?" asked Tony, glancing over at Loki as he spoke in a hushed voice.

"No, I don't remember it being that easy. This guy can fight," said Steve, glancing back at Loki as well.

"But still, you are pretty spry for an older fellow," said Tony, making Maria glance over at the two men. "What's your thing? Pilates?"

"What?" asked Steve, a confused look on his face.

"It's like calisthenics. You might have missed a couple of things, you know, doing time as a Capsicle," said Tony, this time earning a glare from Maria and a look from Steve.

"Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in?" asked Steve, his tone more monotone than it had been earlier.

"Yeah, there's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you," replied Tony arrogantly, before the sound of thunder rumbled through the ship, followed by a flash of lightning just outside the window.

Maria tensed slightly as Natasha said: "Where is this coming from?" before she looked over at Loki who seemed unsettled at the sudden thunder. Maria eyed him curiously as he looked all over the place, seeming to be searching for something.

"What's the matter? Scared of a little lightning?" asked Steve sarcastically when he and Tony saw the look Loki had on his face as well.

"I'm not overly fond of what follows," said Loki, making Maria furrow her brow when all of a sudden, the entire jet shook, almost causing her to fall to the floor.

It had almost sounded like someone had landed on the jet itself which made Maria's heart beat quicken and the adrenaline to start pumping through her veins again, the pain once again disappearing and a strange, almost cold, sensation appearing around the wound at the back of her skull.

"What was that?" asked Maria, sitting upright and glancing back at Tony and Steve.

"Stay down, Maria," ordered Steve, pointing a finger at her and making her lie back down again.

The moment the jet shook once more, Steve ran over to Maria and grabbed his shield, placing a hand on her cheek and silently telling her to stay out of whatever fight was coming up. She nodded her head before Steve turned to face Stark, who now had his helmet back on. Tony opened the doors to the jet and started walking towards the exit, air swooshing past Maria's face.

"Are you insane!?"

"What are you doing?!" exclaimed Steve when suddenly, a man landed on the open platform of the jet, a red cape swaying behind him and long, blonde hair coming down to his shoulders. He looked serious and very determined as he looked right at Loki, starting to walk inside of the jet.

Tony was about to shoot at him when the man used his hammer to punch Tony away from him, sending him flying across the jet, bumping against Steve so they both landed on their bums. The hammer gave away who it was since Maria had read SHIELD's file on what happened in Mexico.

Thor.

"Shit," she mumbled, sitting back up again as she watched Thor grab Loki by his collar before flying out of the jet with his brother, taking away the man they had fought to capture.

"And now there's that guy," exclaimed Tony annoyed as he stood up, Steve doing the same.

"Another Asgardian?" asked Natasha, earning a nod from Maria.

"Thor!" she called back to her, seeing the agent's face turn into one of understanding.

"Friendly?" asked Steve, earning a nod from Maria.

"He was a year ago."

"It doesn't matter," said Tony as he walked past Maria. "If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost."

"Stark, we need a plan of attack," said Steve, taking a step towards him as he was about to jump out of the jet.

"I have a plan," said Tony, glancing back at Steve and Maria one last time. "Attack."

And with that said, Tony jumped out of the jet, flying after Thor and Loki as fast as his suit could take him. Steve eyed Maria once, sighing a frustrated sigh at Tony's ignorance before grabbing a parachute that was placed close to Maria.

"Steve! No, these guys are gods… Legends. They're no match for you nor me," said Maria, shaking her head as she stood up and placed her hand on the parachute he held in his hand.

"Sorry, Maria," said Steve, putting the parachute on. "But there's only one God and he most certainly doesn't dress like that."

Maria was about to say something more when Steve placed his hand on her cheek again. "Why are you up?"

"Listen to Dalton, cap! They're no match for you," said Natasha, making Steve glance over at her before shaking his head.

"I can't," said Steve. "Like you said, Maria. Loki's our mission."

And with that said, Steve jumped out of the plane as well, shield in his hands and parachute on his back. She gasped before walking over to Natasha.

"Turn around," ordered Maria.

"Already two steps ahead of you," said Natasha, closing the platform in the back of the jet at the same time as she turned the jet around, following the signal of Iron Man's suit to where they were supposed to be. "You okay?"

Maria glanced at the back of Natasha's head, realizing that the nausea she had felt earlier because of the wound in the back of her head, was gone. In fact, all the pain in her body was gone. Her wrist was fine again and her head felt completely normal. Though, that could just be because of the adrenaline in her veins.

"Yeah…" said Maria, silently.

Steve, Tony and Thor weren't far away and when they found the place where they were, they found destruction. Trees had been felled all around the three heroes and they formed a circle around them as they all stood facing each other, seeming to simply be talking by now. Maria wondered what kind of battle had been going on between them as they let the jet land not too far away from them.

Thor was the first to enter with Loki behind him, handcuffs on. The trickster was placed on the same seat as before again while Steve and Tony entered after them.

"Now that we've settled that… shall we return back to base?" suggested Natasha, not really asking as the platform closed and the jet set off before anyone could even bother to answer.

"So…" said Maria as she and the others stood in the back, away from Loki and looking at each other with an uncomfortable silence hanging in the air. "Thor, right?"

"Yes, my lady," said Thor, making Maria giggle.

"I'm not a lady," said Maria, shaking her head.

"Maybe not," said Steve, making Maria look over at him, her smile faltering as she saw the stern look on his face. "But I do remember you being hurt."

Tony took of the helmet of his suit, looking at her with a confused look on his face as well while Thor glanced between Steve and Maria, more curious than confused.

"Yeah…" said Maria, trailing off before she reached for the back of her head, touching the place where blood had been oozing out only minutes ago.

Steve walked over to her, lifting her hair up again and inspecting her wound. "That's impossible…" he whispered to her, his eyes locked on the back of her neck. "The wound's gone."

"Very funny, cap," said Tony, walking over to Maria and checking the back of her neck himself, the unconvinced look on his face turning into one of confusion as he took a deeper look at her neck. "What? How'd you do that?"

"I didn't do anything… I suppose the same thing happened to these wounds as my burns…" deduced Maria as Steve let her hair fall down again.

"And what happened to those?" asked Tony.

"I don't know," mumbled Maria quietly, sitting down with her face in her hands. "Just for once… can I be normal?"

"But you are, my lady!" said Thor, earning the attention from Maria. "I have heard of many great heroes that have had the ability to heal. There is nothing wrong with it!"

"It's not something normal here on Earth," explained Maria, earning a confused look from Thor.

"It is not?" he asked, furrowing his brow. "How strange."

Maria giggled at his words and confused look, making Thor smirk back at her.

"I'm sure we'll find an answer back at the helicarrier," soothed Steve, sitting down next to her. "And no matter what the answer is, we'll be by your side."

"You are a group of fellow warriors then, I presume?" asked Thor as Tony walked over to look out through the windows that Natasha was sitting in front of.

"Yeah. A very new one," said Steve, nodding his head as he looked over at Tony. "Just met today, actually."

"And yet you two are so close?" asked Thor, both Maria and Steve looking up at him.

He had a point. They had both met each other just that very day and yet, they had managed to come closer to each other than Maria had ever come to any other person except for Matt and her grandmother. She blushed at that fact, thinking that maybe her feelings she felt towards Steve were actually rushed and not real. The last thought made her slightly saddened though but at the same time, it was foolish of her to think that anything was going to happen between the two of them after having known each other for only a day. Yes, he was perfect. But perhaps that was what made her feel such strong feelings towards him. She had loved a man before in her life. Those feelings had felt different, not as intense. Perhaps all she was with Steve was infatuated, nothing more nothing less hence why the feelings were so intense. Therefore, she figured it was not real love she felt… On the other hand, she was not that sure that the other man had actually loved her at all, which meant that that love had not been real…

Everything was just very confusing to her.

It could also just be shock mixed with wonder at the fact that he still treated her like an equal although he knew about her past. Tony had barely said a word to her and she knew he most certainly wasn't happy about her having kept those secrets from him when he had let her into his life.

"I'm sorry, I meant no disrespect," said Thor suddenly, making Maria look over at Steve who had stood up and walked over to Tony.

"It's okay, Thor," said Maria, smiling up at him. "He's… gone through a lot lately."

Thor nodded, sitting down next to Maria and letting his hammer rest beside his feet.

"I must say, I envy your sword. It looks like a valiant and trustworthy friend to have beside you in battle," said Thor, his way of speaking making Maria smile slightly before she looked down at the sword that was attached to her utility belt. She took it out, seeing the spot where Loki's blood had touched the blade and immediately taking out a cloth from her pocket in order to wipe it away.

"Where did you learn to swing such a weapon?" asked Thor.

"Well…" said Maria, realizing she was going to have to tell a bit of her past in order to answer his question. She contemplated on whether she wanted to do this or not before opening her mouth. "Long story short… A man who once was very close to me gave it to me when I joined his… political movement. Told me that I was going to need to defend myself and… well, I wasn't much of a shooter when it came to guns so… this was my other option. That or arrows and that wasn't really my thing either."

"It is a great gift," said Thor, nodding his head.

"And where did you get your… hammer?" asked Maria, gesturing down towards Mjölnir.

"Long story short," said Thor, smirking at Maria who scoffed and smiled at him. "My father gave it to me as a gift because I am the crown prince of Asgard. Only the one that is worthy of the powers of Mjölnir can lift it and use it."

"And you are worthy?" asked Maria.

"Yes," chuckled Thor. "That I am."

"Obviously… sorry, stupid question," said Maria, letting her fingers grace over the handle of Mjölnir. "I read about this once… grandma even made me write an essay about it once."

"Really?" asked Thor, an amused tone to his voice.

"Yeah… got an A," replied Maria, straightening back up and smiling widely and proudly at Thor who laughed loudly at her comment.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading! Don't forget to let me know what you thought by leaving a comment!**


	10. Chapter 10, What is his game?

_Chapter rewritten, 2017_

 **Make You Feel My Love ~Book I~**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Marvel or any of its characters or movies/series. All I own is my own OC and  her story.

* * *

 **~ Chapter 10 ~  
What is his game?**

Maria waved the medical team away the moment she stepped out of the jet, wanting to go with her team instead. Luckily, the medical team only rolled their eyes and walked away, letting her be so that she could follow her team. It almost seemed as though they were used to people not wanting medical attention.

A couple of other agents, heavily armored, took Loki away from the team, escorting him to his prison cell, while director Fury led the team back to the bridge, shortly greeting Thor and welcoming him inside. He had not seemed that surprised at seeing Thor, though Maria figured Natasha had reported on their new guest the moment Thor had joined them on the jet.

"Stay here while I go talk to our new guest," ordered Fury before he walked away from the bridge, pressing his finger against his ear piece as he did, ordering men around just as usual.

"I need to clean myself up a bit," sighed Maria.

"Why?" asked Thor, eyeing Maria up and down which made her blush slightly.

"Because I've got blood covering my neck and it's itching," said Maria, avoiding eye contact with the Norse God.

"Don't be too long," said Steve, earning a nod from Maria.

"I'll be here before Stark," said Maria, referring to the fact that Tony was away, taking off his Iron Man suit.

She quickly walked away from the bridge, jogging towards her room and closing the door behind her the moment she entered. Quickly, she walked towards the mirror, inspecting herself. She wasn't going to have to change into another outfit as her suit seemed to be alright, apart from the blood at the top of her back. Though, because her suit was a dark color, one barely noticed it. Instead, she put her hair up in a messy bun and walked over to the very small bathroom. She placed her mask on the sink before splashing some water over her face and neck, washing the blood away and making the itch disappear. As she looked back into the mirror that hung above the sink, she stared at her reflection for a while. The water that she had splashed over her face made her eyeliner run down her cheeks as well as the small amount of foundation she had put on that very morning. She wiped it away quickly, washing the dark makeup off her hands too before she turned around to inspect her neck.

There was no visual sign of any kind of open wound. Though, there was a white mark left right at the bottom of her hairline. She inspected it closer by leaning towards the mirror, nearly slipping on the sink as she had to sit on top of it, only to find the scar to be very long and thick. Whatever she had done to herself when she fell, it had indeed created a huge wound.

She now understood Steve's and Tony's worry about her. Though, she didn't understand why she was okay. Her world wasn't spinning anymore and the concussion she had had, according to Tony, was most certainly gone as she didn't feel it anymore. She started to panic slightly. What was going on with her? This had never happened before. She had been in several accidents throughout in her life, though she didn't recall recovering this quickly after those accidents. In fact, one of those accidents had even been impossible to recover from and something inside of her felt angry about the fact that she hadn't had these powers back then when a huge metal bar had pierced a hole right above her right hipbone, having even grazed it slightly. Of course, the metal bar hadn't done that itself. No, she had been pushed down from a building and accidentally landed on the bar, making her future dreams of ever becoming a mother impossible to fulfil.

Quickly, she let her hair down again, placing her mask in her utility belt so she could easily grab it, before walking outside again, locking her room behind her. With swift steps, she walked towards the bridge, trying her best to hide her worries and anger from showing on her face.

Steve and Natasha were sitting around the large, glass table to which you arrived first upon entering the bridge while Bruce was standing beside them, watching something on a screen in front of Steve while Thor stood further away, simply listening with his back turned towards them. Maria walked over to stand beside Bruce, seeing the recordings from a video camera inside of the room in which Loki was being held. Fury was talking to Loki and what they said resonated through the bridge; the bridge being almost empty of people as it was in the middle of the night by now.

 _"Ant,"_ said Fury on the screen, gesturing towards Loki. _"Boot,"_ he said, turning back towards the consoles in front of him, making Loki chuckle lightly.

 _"It's an impressive cage,"_ said Loki from behind the cell's glass wall. _"Not built, I think, for me."_

Maria glanced over at Bruce as he shifted uncomfortably, making Maria realize that the cage originally was made for the Hulk, in case Bruce would lose control of his anger issue. It saddened her that they had even built a cage for him as just the mere thought of knowing that you weren't fully trusted already would create problems with keeping your cool. At least, it would've affected Maria if it were her they had built that cage for.

 _"Built for something a lot stronger than you,"_ said Fury in the video.

 _"Oh, I've heard. A mindless beast who makes play he is still a man,"_ said Loki, suddenly turning towards the camera and making it seem as though he was looking straight at Bruce.

The scientist nodded his head slightly, most certainly taking offence of the words Loki was saying about him. Maria carefully placed a hand on his arm, earning a look from Bruce to which she only smiled back at.

 _"How desperate are you when you call on such lost creatures to defend yourselves?"_ asked Loki, his words angering even Maria as she could feel Bruce tense underneath of where she was holding his arm.

 _"How desperate am I?"_ asked Fury. _"You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk about piece and you kill 'cause it's fun… You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."_

 _"It burns you to have come so close,"_ deduced Loki as Fury stepped closer to the cell doors. _"To have the Tesseract, to have power… unlimited power… And for what? A warm light for all mankind?"_

Maria furrowed her brow at his words, her anger changing into one of confusion while Bruce placed a hand over hers, eyeing her with the same suspicion in his eyes as she felt towards Loki's words. Something was off. Something was wrong. They were missing something and she knew it, she could feel it. But what was it? What did she miss?

 _I need you to make sure that the phase 2 prototypes are shipped out._

Her mind let her hear Fury say that, but she didn't understand why. She knew her unconscious mind knew the answer already, but she just couldn't put the pieces together. She needed more variables in order to figure this equation out.

 _"And then to be reminded what real power is,"_ finished Loki, earning an eye-roll from Fury as he turned away from the God of Mischief.

 _"Well, let me know if real power wants a magazine or something,"_ said Fury as he walked away from the cell, towards the exit, the video footage ending and almost all eyes being on Bruce.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" joked Bruce, his arms crossed over his chest.

Maria let go of his arm as Bruce's fingers let go of her hand, knowing that he was feeling very uneasy with Loki on the helicarrier although he couldn't really say it out loud.

"Loki's gonna drag this out," said Steve before looking over at Thor who still hadn't turned back to the rest of the team. "So… Thor, what's his play?"

Now, all eyes were directed towards the Norse God of thunder as he slowly turned towards the team, his eyes first landing on Steve and then on Maria who slowly sat down next to Steve in one of the empty chairs.

"He's got an army called the Chitauri," confessed Thor. "They're not of Asgard nor any other world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army… from outer space," said Steve, not as a question but more as a statement in order to try and believe it himself. It sounded as though he was tired and Maria glanced over at him though didn't dare to show she was there for him after his last response to them growing close.

"So, he's building another portal," said Bruce as he took off his glasses, earning the attention of the room again as Hill came to stand in a corner, listening in on their conversation. "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?" asked Thor, raising his eyebrows.

"He's an astrophysicist," explained Bruce, thinking Thor hadn't met the scientist yet though Maria knew he had because of the file that was on the case about Thor coming to Earth for the first time.

"He's a friend," said Thor.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell along with one of ours," said Natasha, glancing over at Maria who exchanged a look with her before focusing back on Thor and the conversation at hand.

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him," said Steve. "He's not leading an army from here."

"No, indeed not," agreed Maria, nodding her head.

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki," said Bruce, shaking his head. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cat. You could smell crazy on him."

Maria smirked at that while Thor narrowed his eyes and took a step forwards saying: "Have care how you speak. Loki's beyond reason but he is of Asgard and he is my brother."

"He killed eighty people in two days," said Natasha, earning a defeated look from Thor.

"He's adopted," tried Thor to which Maria simply raised an eyebrow.

"I think it's about the mechanics," said Bruce right as Tony Stark himself entered followed by Coulson and a few other agents who stopped by the door, simply being there to guard in case something happened. At least, that was what Maria assumed. "Iridium. What do they need it for?"

"Huh?" asked Maria, raising an eyebrow.

"It's what Barton and the others stole in Germany," explained Steve, earning a thankful nod from Maria, feeling yet again useless even though she knew, in the back of her head, that they had probably talked about that when she was gone.

"It's a stabilizing agent," said Tony loudly, letting everyone know that he was in the room. "It means the portal won't collapse in on itself like it did at SHIELD."

As Tony rounded the table, he passed Thor on his way towards the bridge's monitor where normally Fury would stand and lead everything happening on the helicarrier. However, since he was not there, that spot was empty. As he passed Thor, he patted Thor's arm, earning a look from the Asgardian himself.

"No hard feelings, point break, you have a mean swing," said Tony, most certainly referring to the fight that had been between Thor, Steve and Tony on their way back to America. "Also means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants."

By this point, Tony was standing by the monitors on Fury's place, looking around at the monitors and at the people working on the bridge. He threw out some unnecessary orders that referred to sailing, causing everyone on the bridge to look at him with confused eyes. Tony ignored them though, instead pointing a finger at the far off end of the room.

"That man's playing Galaga!" said Tony, the entire bridge still silent. "He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did."

He covered one eye with his hand, looking at the monitors with only one eye before turning back to the team. "How does Fury even see these?"

Maria rolled her eyes at her former boss, feeling embarrassed for him. Of course, this was just the way he was, but this was a formal meeting and it was about the safety of the entire world. Couldn't he at least pretend to be worried about that? And, was he always like this during important, formal meetings?

Probably.

"He turns," replied Hill coldly, answering his former question with an eye roll of her own as Tony started looking through the different monitors.

"Sound's exhausting," he murmured. "The rest of the raw materials, Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he needs is a power source, high energy density. Something to kick start the cube."

"What kind of power source are we talking about here?" asked Maria.

"Well… he'd have to heat the cube to a hundred and twelve million Kelvin just to break through the Colom barrier," said Bruce, only causing more confusion to Maria as she had never really understood science nor gone to school.

"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunnel effect," said Tony as he started walking towards Bruce, once again causing Maria to get even more confused.

"Well, if he can do that he could attain heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet," said Bruce, he himself walking towards Tony as well.

"Finally someone who speaks English," said Tony, earning baffled looks from both Steve and Maria.

"Is that what just happened?" asked Steve quietly.

"Tell me about it…" murmured Maria back.

"It's good to meet you doctor Banner," said Tony, shaking Bruce's hand and finally sounding formal and serious again. "Your work on anti-electronic collisions is unparalleled and I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous, green rage monster."

Maria opened her mouth slightly, gawking at the words that had just come out of Tony's mouth and slapping herself mentally for thinking that Tony could even be formal and serious for longer than a few seconds.

"Thanks…" said Bruce quietly.

"Doctor Banner is only here to track the cube," said Fury as he walked inside of the room, having heard Tony's last words. "I was hoping you might join in."

"I'd start with that stick of his," said Steve. "It may be magical but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon."

Maria squirmed at the mention of Hydra, looking away from Steve and the other heroes. Once more, she felt out of place. In what way was she actually a hero? Sure, she had not really known back then as her boss had tried to keep it from her, though she had still worked under him… For _them_.

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube," said Fury.

"And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of my sharpest men into his personal flying monkeys," said Fury, making Maria focus on the conversation at hand again.

"Monkeys?" asked Thor, furrowing his brow as he turned towards the Director. "I do not understand."

"I do!" said Steve, pointing his finger at Thor. His eyes lit up like a child during math class who finally understand what 2+2 means, and his comment made Maria's heart flutter and a smile spread over her lips. Steve looked back at her, confused at everyone's silence before he quietly added, "I understood that reference…"

"Shall we play, doctor?" asked Tony, ignoring Steve as Maria smiled a soft smile at Steve's confused look.

"This way," said Bruce as they both left.

"The rest of you, get some rest," said Fury, the doors closing behind Tony and Bruce. "The moment they find something on the Tesseract, I'll be sure to inform you all."

And with that, Maria and the others stood up, walking out of the room. Thor looked around himself with a confused look on his face before Natasha asked him to come and eat something with her which made the Asgardian smile widely as he apparently had been very hungry after travelling from world to world. Steve and Maria, however, continued through the hallway towards their own rooms, walking in silence.

"I don't really understand how Fury thinks I'll be able to sleep with Loki on the helicarrier. There's something off about this," said Steve suddenly, breaking the silence which made Maria look over at him, nodding slightly.

"I agree," said Maria. "Why would he just all of a sudden decide to let himself be grabbed? Because that was what it was. It's not like we can fight a god… or alien… very strong, magical alien… This day is so fucked up."

"Unless he's got some kind of plan… something he wants that's on this helicarrier," suggested Steve.

"Even if he wants something… that cage can hold a Hulk. He can't get out," said Maria, earning a look from Steve. "What?"

"I don't know… There's just something about this. About SHIELD," said Steve.

"About SHIELD?" asked Maria, furrowing her brow and stopping as they arrived at her door.

"You work for them, don't you?" asked Steve.

"Well… Yeah, sort of," said Maria. "I'm still in training. Barton's supposed to be training me but..."

"Sorry about that," said Steve, earning a shrug from Maria.

"What did you mean; something's off about SHIELD?" asked Maria, making Steve look away from her for a moment.

"I understand that they're trying to keep the planet safe," said Steve, earning a nod from Maria. "But… I don't know. I suppose I just have some troubles trusting people nowadays."

An odd atmosphere filled the hallway they were standing in after he had said those words and looked at Maria again, his eyes filled with emotions Maria couldn't even begin to describe. He looked worn, filled with remorse, distressed, strained and overall worried though there were more emotions that seemed deeper than any other emotions she had ever seen in her life. She was suddenly filled with the urge to care for him, nurse him to sleep so all the anxiousness could slip away from him. So he could relax. It was an overwhelming feeling and she had to fight against the impulse to actually embrace him, hold him close to her and let him rest while she protected him.

"I overheard Fury talking about something called phase 2," said Maria suddenly, Steve furrowing his brow.

Maria immediately shut her mouth, wondering why she had said that. What Fury had said that night when Loki had appeared was confidential and about things that not even Maria was supposed to know about. Things she wouldn't even dare to question Fury about.

"What's that?" asked Steve.

She felt conflicted. This felt like a huge decision that she had to make. A decision between who she trusted and who she would betray or lie to. She either told Steve all she knew about this which maybe not even had anything to do with whatever Loki was after, or she kept her mouth shut and stayed loyal to SHIELD…

* * *

 **Thank you for reading! Don't forget to let me know what you thought by leaving a comment!**


	11. Chapter 11, Phase 2

**Make You Feel My Love ~Book I~**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Marvel or any of its characters or movies/series. All I own is my own OC and  her story.

* * *

 **~ Chapter 11 ~  
Phase 2  
**

Maria had never been strong enough to fight against her own feelings. This had been taken advantage of many times in her life by men who deemed themselves worthy enough to manipulate her to do things she normally wouldn't do. Men who lied to her and used her in more than one way; used her for more than pleasure.

"I don't know… On the night that Loki came to Earth, he ordered Hill around, wanting her to get the prototypes for Phase 2 out of the building as fast as possible. Apparently, whatever it is, they were important to Fury," said Maria, earning a puzzled look from Steve.

She had made her decision. Steve was who she wanted to trust and she craved for him to trust her back. Work was less important to her then being with the people she loved. After all, why else had she bribed the doctors to keep her grandmother alive, the only person in her life besides Matt which she felt comfortable around and which she trusted? School, work and the bright future that those things gave her were worth nothing to her if she didn't have someone to share that future with. Being alone wasn't what she wanted and because she didn't have many friends, those few who she did have and those she did trust, she didn't let go easily. Having someone in her life, either a friend or more, was something she depended on a lot.

"A prototype? Like some kind of machine?" asked Steve, earning only a shrug from Maria. "I think we have some research to do."

"Wait, are we going behind the back of SHIELD?" asked Maria quietly.

"I can sense you don't fully trust them," said Steve. "And I don't like it… Going behind the back of the people you work for but… this phase 2 thing… I want to know what it is."

"We can't just go and ask Fury," concluded Maria, earning a nod from Steve.

"Exactly. He doesn't have to know… unless it's something we don't like," said Steve before starting to walk away again, Maria following him.

"There's a cargo right down this hall," said Maria as she and Steve hurriedly walked down the hallways of the helicarrier, determined to at least try and find something that could give a hint of what phase 2 was. "If Hill managed to get the prototypes away from the SHIELD base, that's where they should be."

"Good," said Steve before they both grew quiet as multiple SHIELD agents passed them.

"Auw!" said a voice from inside the lab they passed, causing Steve to stop walking and turn towards the door.

"Stark…" sighed Steve before entering the lab, followed by a puzzled Maria.

"Are you nuts?" asked Steve as they both stopped in the center of the lab.

Bruce and Tony were both standing in front of a table with Loki's scepter on it. Multiple files and PADs were sprawled all around the scepter as they both ran tests on it. Tony looked over at Steve while Bruce simply continued to type on the computer that was placed to the left of the scepter.

"You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret?" asked Tony, turning his head back to Bruce. "Jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" asked Steve as Maria rolled her eyes at Tony's stupid comment.

"Funny things are," said Tony, pointing the little stick he was holding in his hands towards Steve and Maria, most likely it being the tool that had caused Bruce to squeal earlier.

"Running the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny," said Steve before turning his gaze on Bruce. "No offence, doc."

"It's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things," said Bruce, earning a soft smile from Maria to which he looked up.

"You're tip toeing, big man," said Tony. "You need to strut."

"And you need to focus on the problem, Stark," said Steve, his gaze on Tony who walked away from Bruce to stand in front of the table instead.

"You think I'm not?" asked Tony.

"Doesn't look like it to us," said Maria, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Since when are you two a team?" asked Tony, furrowing his brow. "I pay for you."

"Stop it," said Maria, glaring at him as Steve took a step forwards.

"Please, as if you two haven't thought this is all just… odd," said Tony, rolling his eyes. "I mean, why did Fury call us in now? Why hasn't he done that before? What isn't he telling us?"

Both Steve and Maria stayed quiet, knowing now that not only the two of them were being suspicious about everything going on.

"Can't do the equation unless I have all the variables," said Tony, walking back to stand behind the table again, away from Steve who most certainly had walked too close to him for his liking.

"You think Fury's hiding something?" asked Steve, his voice indicating that he felt the same though luckily, neither Stark or Banner noticed this.

 _Steve's a bad liar._

"He's a spy," said Tony, looking from Steve to Maria and back again. "He's _the_ spy. His secrets have secrets. It's bugging him too, isn't it?"

As Tony gestured towards Bruce, all the attention in the room was turned towards him to which he sighed and looked at the others before shaking his head and looking away again.

"No… I just wanna finish my work here an-"

"Doctor?" asked Maria, taking a step closer to Bruce to which he sighed, taking of his glasses.

"A warm light for all mankind," said Bruce, quoting what Loki had said earlier while he and Fury had talked, which the Avengers had seen on screen. "Loki's jab to Fury about the cube."

"I heard it," said Steve, nodding his head.

"Well, I think that was meant for you," said Bruce, earning an approving nod from Tony. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the Tower, it was still all over the news."

"Stark Tower? That big, ugly…" said Steve, trailing off as Tony looked over at him with an unamused look on his face. "Building in New York?"

"It's powered by an arc reactor, right?" asked Maria, earning a look from Tony. "I read the news… meaning Loki did as well."

"Exactly. And you know what the arc reactor is?" asked Bruce. "A self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what? A year?"

"It's just a prototype," said Tony, shrugging slightly before looking at Steve. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now, that's what he's getting at."

"So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project?" asked Bruce, glancing at Maria although he knew that Maria didn't know anything about SHIELD, her being new. "And what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"Yeah, exactly. SHIELD's just supposed to protect the world, not create things for it. We've got Stark to do that," said Maria, earning a grateful look from Tony.

"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finished breaking into SHIELD's secure files," said Tony, walking towards one of the many screens that was hanging from the ceiling, showing information on the scepter.

"I'm sorry did you say-" started Steve but was interrupted by Tony.

"Jarvis' been running it since I hit the bridge," said Tony, not looking at Maria nor Steve. "In a few hours, I'll know every dirty secret SHIELD's ever tried to hide."

"Yet you're confused at why they didn't want you around?" asked Steve as Maria looked away from them, knowing full and well that she and Steve were going behind the backs of SHIELD as well.

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence?" asked Tony, finally looking at Steve again. "Historically not awesome."

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up," said Steve, Maria glancing over at him as he continued to stare at Tony. "This is a man who means to start a war and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed."

"Steve, Maria, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?" asked Bruce as Steve glanced between Tony and Bruce while Maria simply stared at Steve, not sure of what to do or say.

"Just… find the cube," said Steve before he walked away, Maria following him quickly.

They continued walking down the hallway until they arrived at the place where the cargo was. Luckily, the hallway was empty and no one was around to see them stop in front of the closed doors. Without struggling, Steve opened the doors with his hands, earning a surprised look from Maria to which he simply shrugged. They walked inside, the doors closing again behind them, and were met with a dark room. The lights weren't on and turning them on would make it easier for someone that passed by to notice that someone was in there. So, Maria quickly grabbed the flashlight that was attached to her utility belt and turned it on, lightning the way ahead of them.

Multiple crates were placed all over the storage room while a cool air floated out of the air vents from above them.

"Tony pays you?" asked Steve quietly as they started looking at the nametags of the crates, hoping to find one that was tagged _phase 2_.

"And you didn't tell your team we were suspecting SHIELD as well?" asked Maria, earning a look from Steve.

"I usually follow the orders that are given to me. I've done so my entire life. This feels odd," said Steve as they both continued to look at the name tags of the crates.

"Believe me, I'm not entirely comfortable with this either," said Maria.

"If there's nothing in here… we'll let it go," said Steve, earning a nod from Maria.

"And," said Maria, flashing her flashlight over a couple of tags on the crates, passing them by as they were simple random things. "He pays for my grandmother's health care. She's… in a coma."

"I'm sorry about that," said Steve, pausing to look over at her.

"I used to work for him as well," said Maria. "I don't think he likes the fact that I lied to him about my entire life… you know, the file?"

"Yes… the Russians," said Steve, making Maria nod her head and look away from him as emotions overwhelmed her which she quickly took control over.

"He read my file of course… I don't know, he hasn't really been the same towards me since this team came together," said Maria.

"Have you spoken to him alone?" asked Steve, making Maria look back at him, shaking her head. "Well, people have a tendency to act differently whenever people are around. Try talking to him when he's alone. You'll notice if he's mad at you then or not."

"Thanks," said Maria, earning a smile from Steve.

"Even if he is," said Steve. "He doesn't have the right to. You had a reason to keep that from him. I wouldn't have wanted to tell everyone that either if it had been in my past."

"Yeah…" said Maria quietly. "But it wasn't…"

At this point, Steve had turned completely to Maria, watching her curiously as she continued to check the crates.

"What do you mean?" he asked after a while, probably having waited for her to continue.

"It's just… it's in my past. None of you have that kind of pasts," said Maria, stopping as well though not turning her back towards Steve.

"Stark used to make weapons. Bombs that took lives with his name plastered on it," said Steve, making Maria turn to him and noticing how close by he was standing. "I've taken lives in the war as well. Barton has taken lives just these past two days and Romanoff… well, I don't know about her. Bruce, no. But the Hulk has hurt people. My point is, Maria, you're not the only one on the team that has taken lives."

"Maybe I'm not the only one… But the amount of people… and the ways…" said Maria, the same emotions as before suddenly overwhelming her but this time, they were a thousand times stronger, causing her eyes to sparkle with tears. "I don't belong on this team. I'm no hero. I can never be a hero. I've done too many horrible things to in any way be a hero."

"No, don't say that," said Steve, furrowing his brow as he took a few more steps towards her, closing the space between them as he placed his hands on her shoulders. She felt pathetic as she stood there, close to crying. "You _are_ a hero. I've read about the things you've done in Hell's Kitchen. I've read about the things that you've done in Midtown."

"Steve," said Maria, tears suddenly falling down her cheeks which she quickly wiped away with angry strokes as she felt even more pathetic than before. "Those were tiny things. I've never saved the world from a crazy person. I've never been in a war, saving countless of people and giving hope to an entire country. I've never done anything that's had an impact on people's lives."

At this, Steve shook his head. "Those robberies you stopped, those criminals you managed to arrest… All of that could have escalated into something worse. Something that could've taken someone's _life_. You stopped that from happening. You stopped those people before they could kill someone's daughter, someone's son, someone's parent… someone's friend. To me, that's a heroic thing to do."

A scoff erupted from Maria as more tears pushed their way onto her lashes and down onto her cheeks. She fought the tears, not wanting to show Captain America just how pathetic and useless she actually was however, she didn't see disappointment in Steve's eyes. She didn't see disgust or annoyance. She saw… love?

"Thank you…" said Maria, earning a lopsided smile from Steve that melted her heart.

"That's what friends are for," said Steve, shrugging before he brushed some tears away from her cheeks and letting his hands fall back down on her shoulders again.

"We've known each other for what… a day now? And I've already told you more than my own family knows about me," said Maria, letting out another scoff which was intended to be a laugh but since she was still quietly crying, it didn't end up to be a very cute laugh.

"We just… connected, I suppose," said Steve, shrugging. "I'm happy about that, you know."

"Me too," she said, placing her hand over Steve's hand that was placed on her left shoulder, squeezing it gently. "If you ever need someone to talk to… I'm here for you."

At this, Steve's smile faltered slightly before it was replaced with a soft one. He nodded his head at her before suddenly, surprisingly, embracing her. She was surprised for a while before she embraced him back, her eyes closing. She could feel his muscles through his tight suit and blushed at that before she felt his scent enter her nose. It was a nice mix of newly washed clothes and a cologne that reminded her of the one her grandfather used to wear. Her arms were draped over his shoulders in the hug, his soft hair brushing against her hands as she melted into the hug, never wanting it to end. She felt him pull her closer which surprised her though made her smile as well. He burrowed his face against her hair, hoping she didn't smell strangely, before she suddenly realized something.

The hug had been to comfort her, she knew this. But something about it changed when he pulled her closer. Although it was still a comforting hug, she almost felt as though it now was comforting him and therefore, she pulled away slightly to look at him. His eyes didn't meet hers as she placed one hand on the back of his head and one on his cheek, her thumb brushing against his cheekbone in a comforting way. The flashlight she had been holding was long forgotten and now lay on the floor, shining on one crate in particular. A crate, labelled Phase 2.

"What is it?" asked Maria quietly, seeing the same emotions as earlier that day in his eyes.

Steve shook his head slowly, his arms holding her around her waist, not letting go which, again, surprised her. Although, in a way, she was very delighted about the fact that she wasn't the only one that felt attracted towards the other.

"Steve… tell me," said Maria, her other hand now cupping his other cheek, their noses almost touching as her eyes searched his for an answer. But all she found was the whirl of emotions.

"A month ago…" he said quietly, still avoiding her gaze. "I crashed into the ice. Now… I'm here. And… It's not the same. I was prepared to die. I thought I'd never come back again. But I did. And I can't help but feel… just as useless as you're feeling. I know nothing of the modern day technology… I know nothing."

"You do know things," said Maria. "You know how to be a leader. You know how to be an amazing teammate… and an amazing friend. Don't you ever doubt yourself Steve Rogers for the things that you have done in your life are so honorable and so great, that everything you do is looked up to. You are a _hero_ , Steve. You've changed the lives of so many people. You stopped Hydra, you helped with the world war… You may not know everything about the technology of today or the knowledge of today… But you know everything about fighting and everything about what a good person is. And if there's one thing that Steve Rogers, not Captain America, would never do… It's stop fighting. You wanted to be a soldier, now look at you. You can get through this as well. It will be tough, yes. But you're not alone, Steve… You're not."

At this point, Steve was looking her in the eyes, his chest moving slightly faster than usual and his nostrils flaring slightly as he breathed. He was fighting against tears.

"Come here," she said in a whisper, moving so she was standing on her tiptoes, making it slightly more comfortable for Steve to lean his chin on her shoulder as Maria held him close to her, fulfilling the needs and desires that she had felt earlier about holding him. She forgot about her own worries, not just because Steve had helped her feel slightly better, but also because she now prioritized Steve's emotions and wanting them to be everything but sad.

It took a while, but Steve calmed down again and it wasn't until then that Maria came back down from standing on her tiptoes, which made Steve straighten his back and look at her. Really, look at her. His eyes seemed to pierce her soul and she all of a sudden blushed. Her hands travelled down his muscular arms and slowed down at his elbows while Steve held his arms around her waist, smiling at her.

"I think it's my turn to say thank you," said Steve, earning a smile from Maria before she leaned up and placed a kiss on his cheek.

Had it not been so dark and had the flashlight not been pointing at the crate they were searching for, making Maria walk over to it immediately, she would've seen the blush on Steve's cheeks and the longing look that he had in his eyes as his gaze followed her before snapping out of it and turning back into Captain America.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading! Don't forget to let me know what you thought by leaving a comment!**


	12. Chapter 12, Secrets and Fights

**Make You Feel My Love ~Book I~**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Marvel or any of its characters or movies/series. All I own is my own OC and  her story.

* * *

 **~ Chapter 12 ~  
Secrets and Fights**

"Phase 2," read Maria, pointing at the label.

"Let's open it," said Steve, placing his fingers at the part where the lock would've been and easily opening it, the both of them staring at the contents of the crate.

"Weapons?" asked Maria, disbelieve filling her voice.

"I don't believe it…" muttered Steve as he took the weapon in his hands, inspecting it closer. Maria turned the flashlight towards the weapon, inspecting it as well. "Is their plan to use the Tesseract on these weapons so that they'll become more powerful?"

"I think so…" said Maria, shaking her head. "But, let's be thorough here. How about we 'ask' Fury?"

Steve smirked. "I think that's a good idea."

* * *

"… no fuss, no muss…" said Tony's voice from inside the lab before Steve and Maria entered, both carrying a pair of the guns they'd found. "What _is_ phase 2?"

They both placed the guns on a table in the middle of the lab, glaring at Fury as he stood turned towards Tony, barely not wanting to turn towards them as they finally found out what he had been hiding all the time.

"Phase 2 is that SHIELD uses the cube to create weapons," said Maria angrily.

"Sorry," said Steve as they all turned towards them. "The computer was moving a little slow for us."

"Rogers, Dalton, listen, we've gathered everything related on the Tesseract," said Fury as he moved towards Maria and Steve. "This does not mean that we'r-"

"I'm sorry, Nick!" interrupted Tony before turning the screen he was looking at around towards them. "What were you lying about?"

On the screen, was a blueprint for the same weapons that Steve and Maria had found with, beside it, a little miniature sized Tesseract drawn next to it. Although Maria understood nothing of the blueprint itself, she understood why the Tesseract was written next to the weapon.

Maria returned her gaze to Fury, glaring at him and thanking God that she wasn't a fully trained SHIELD agent yet. Quitting was much easier now.

"I was wrong, Maria. The world hasn't changed a bit," said Steve bitterly as Maria crossed her arms over her chest while Natasha and Thor came walking in.

"Did you know about this?" asked Bruce, looking at Natasha.

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?" asked Natasha.

"Oh, I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed," said Bruce as Thor crossed his arms over his chest.

"Loki's manipulating you," said Natasha making Maria's glare at Fury soften into a worried one as she looked over at Bruce.

"And you've been doing what exactly?" asked Bruce, taking a step away from Natasha as she walked closer to the doctor who stood in front of the table with the scepter now.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," said Natasha.

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy," said Bruce. "I like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to create weapons of mass destruction."

He stared right at Fury, as did everyone else which made him sigh before suddenly, pointing towards Thor. "Because of him."

"Me?" asked Thor innocently, pointing one of his own fingers at himself.

"Last year, Earth had a visit from another planet who had a grudge which leveled a small town," said Fury, looking from Thor to Bruce as he answered Banner's question. "We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly – hilariously outgunned."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," defensed Thor.

"But you're not the only people out there, now are you?" asked Fury quickly as he turned towards the Asgardian again. "And you're not the only threat."

"Asgard is not a threat," said Maria.

"Loki's from Asgard," replied Natasha, the cold look she gave Maria made her look away again.

"The world's filling up with people who can't be matched. Who can't be controlled," said Fury.

"Like you control the cube?" asked Steve.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it and his allies," said Thor, stepping closer to Fury as he spoke. "It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"Higher form?" asked Maria, shifting closer to Steve as she suddenly felt nervous.

"You forced our han-"

"Yes, because nuclear shit always calms things down," said Tony.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" asked Fury, earning a glare from Maria.

"I'm sure that if Stark still produced weapons he would-" started Maria.

"Wait a minute, hold on. How's this now about me again?" asked Stark, looking at Maria.

"Isn't it always?" asked Steve, placing himself next to Maria.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," said Thor.

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" asked Fury.

"This is just fantastic. This team's working great, isn't it? I mean, who knows, maybe even Maria knew about this as well!" said Tony, making Steve and Bruce both not hear what Thor had to reply to Fury's words.

"I didn't! I'm not even a SHIELD agent yet!" defended Maria, narrowing her eyes at Tony.

"Well, who knows, because you're just full of secrets aren't you, miss mafia lover!" exclaimed Tony, making Maria flare her nostrils as anger overtook her, an emotion that always scared her which made her anger mix with anxiety.

"I beg your pardon?" hissed Maria as Steve stepped in between them.

"Don't talk to her like that," said Steve. "The past's the past."

"Yeah, it is. And so are you. I really don't understand what my dad ever saw in you," said Tony, crossing his arms over his chest.

"No, 'cause all you see is the outside, not the inside. That's how shallow you are," said Maria, placing a hand on Steve's lower arm.

"Shallow? Well, at least that's something I can change. At least I haven't murdered innocent people because of a stupid idiotic mob leader that you apparently couldn't live without," said Tony, leaving Maria speechless. "At least I don't stay attached to a dead body, giving all the money I can get my hands on to whoever is willing to keep the blood pumping through the already dead body of my grandma!"

"I said," said Steve, placing himself completely in front of Maria. "Don't speak like that to her."

"And what are you going to do about it?" asked Tony, not stepping away as Maria grasped the back of Steve's suit, feeling her heart break in two at the mention of her grandmother, knowing he was completely right about everything.

"Put on the suit…" said Steve, his voice low before both men stopped talking, staring at each other.

"You speak of control yet you cause chaos," said Thor as he stood by the other group of people arguing, making Maria turn her head towards him.

"It's his MO, isn't it? But what are we, a team? No, no, no, no… we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb," said Bruce, causing Steve and Tony to turn towards him, Maria peeking out from behind Steve, her eyes noticing as Bruce's hands moved towards the scepter, slowly.

"You need to step away," said Fury.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" asked Tony, placing his hand lazily on Steve's shoulder which he immediately shrugged off of him.

"You know damn well why," said Steve, glaring at him. "Back off."

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me," said Tony.

"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor," said Steve, rounding Tony once, leaving Maria standing there.

Something was wrong. Her anger inside of her was diverted towards Tony, but it wasn't her anger. Her anger would never go so far as she was too scared of it. After all, anger had caused her much pain in life. No, this was something entirely different.

"Take that off, what are you?" asked Steve.

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," said Tony, looking back at Steve with lazy and bored eyes.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you," said Steve, making Tony glare at him. "Now, I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on the wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire," said Tony nonchalantly, making Steve look at Maria with an unamused look on his face before turning his gaze back to Stark.

"Always a way out," said Steve with a scoff. "You know, you may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero? Like you?" asked Tony, this time Maria stepped forwards. "You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers, everything special about you came out of a _bottle._ "

"Not his heart and his soul," said Maria, making Tony look at her.

"Don't even talk to me about having a heart and a soul. Because when you do, you tell your _friends_ the truth about you. The _entire_ truth about you," said Tony, glaring down at her.

"Like I said, don't talk to her like that," said Steve, placing his hand on Stark's shoulder, moving Stark towards him instead.

"What are you going to do about it, Spangles?" asked Tony.

"Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds," said Steve, earning a shocked look from Maria.

"Guys, this isn't us," said Maria, a sudden headache entering her head which made her grasp her head.

"You people are so petty," said Thor, ignoring Maria's words. "And tiny…"

"Yeah, this is a team," sighed Bruce, Steve turning away from Tony to look at Banner while Tony did the same as Maria, feeling that something was wrong.

"Agent Romanoff, could you escort doctor Banner to his-" started Fury.

"Where? You rented my room," said Bruce angrily.

"The cell was just in case-"

"In case you needed to kill me but you can't, I know, I've tried," said Bruce, earning shocked looks from everyone in the room. "I got low… I didn't see an end so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out. So, I moved on. I focused on helping other people, I was good. Until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone else at risk. You want to know my secret, agent Romanoff? How I stay calm?"

Maria slowly moved her hand towards the sword attached to her utility belt as Bruce's hands gripped the scepter, holding it in his hands.

"Doctor Banner," said Steve. "Put down the scepter."

A sudden beep made Bruce's eyes switch from angry to serious again, his eyes flickering away from the rest of the group as he placed the scepter back on the table before walking over to the computer that had beeped. "Sorry kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all."

"You've located the Tesseract?" asked Thor.

"I can get there faster," said Stark.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard," said Thor. "No human is a match for it."

As Tony moved away from the group, Steve gripped his arm, hindering him from going.

"You're not going alone!" ordered Steve.

"You're gonna stop me?" asked Stark, cocking his head to the side and shrugging his hand off of his arm.

"Put on the suit," said Steve again, once again referring to them fighting.

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man," said Tony.

"Put on the suit," said Steve through gritted teeth.

"Oh my God…" said Bruce suddenly, making everyone look over at him.

"What?" asked Maria quietly when suddenly, a loud noise filled her ears and before she knew it, she was thrown across the room, hitting the wall behind her and falling into unconsciousness.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading! Don't forget to let me know what you thought by leaving a comment!**


	13. Chapter 13, Escape of Loki

**Make You Feel My Love ~Book I~**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Marvel or any of its characters or movies/series. All I own is my own OC and  her story.

* * *

 **~ Chapter 13 ~  
Escape of Loki  
**

Darkness surrounded Maria. It felt as though she was falling into an endless pit of darkness. For some reason, she could feel her entire world spinning and she didn't know what was up or down.

 _"What are you doing!?"_

From time to time, she could hear someone of in the distance talk. It wasn't directed to her, at least she didn't think so. It wasn't the same voice talking each time either and sometimes, she could barely even hear what that person said. Was it something from around her in the real world and not in the unconscious world that she was currently drifting in? Or was it memories playing somewhere far away in her mind; memories she had suppressed deep down to where not even she could find them if she searched?

 _"Mum? I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"_

That was the voice of a little girl. A frightened little girl. For some reason, the sound of that little girl made her feel afraid and all she wanted was to get away from the darkness she was in at the moment. It felt as though the darkness was making her weak and she didn't want that weakness. She wanted to be strong and live again, to be able to move and feel something underneath of her feet when she did that.

 _"How dare you!?"_

That scream had been the last thing that she heard before a small light started to appear in front of her. No matter where she turned, the light was right in front of her and soon, she could feel something cold touch her back, though she couldn't turn around to look at it as it seemed to, just like the light, follow her movements. While the cold against her back felt uncomfortable, the warm hands that touched her cheeks felt comforting and as she focused on the sensation of those hands on her cheeks, she managed to walk towards the light, it seeming to devour her more and more the closer she got to it.

"Stay here, I'll secure the bridge. Help her," said the voice of Directory Fury before silence entered her ears again.

What had happened before this darkness took her over again? What was it that had caused this darkness to take over her mind?

 _"… don't talk to her like that..."_

 _"What are you going to do about it, Spangles?"_

Yes, of course! The fighting had happened before. Why they had started to fight, she wasn't quite sure of but something told her that that odd and strangely forced anger that she had felt towards Tony had something to do with it. Most likely it had been Loki trying to split the team.

When fear suddenly took her over as the light seemed to have devoured her hole and the warmth of those hands had disappeared, a certain longing for her grandmother seemed to appear inside of her. It felt like a childish longing, like a child wanting their mother when sleeping over at a friend's house for the first time and feeling scared because of the different surroundings.

"Lady Maria," boomed Thor's voice, a hand grasping her shoulder suddenly which seemed to cause the sharp light in front of her to disappear slowly and turn into a warmer light, a light in which Maria could see something.

Though, it wasn't until something slapped her cheek lightly that her vision seemed to return to her as well as her control of her body. The feeling of falling for all eternity disappeared and she could feel again, feel more than the cold matter pressed against her back. She could feel the air enter her lungs again; she could hear her heartbeat again and she could feel the cool air against her skin.

"Can you hear me?" asked Thor's voice, the Norse God suddenly appearing in her line of vision. "Although I am certain that you will survive this as well, I _am_ worried about you."

With a groan, Maria started to move her body again, feeling an annoying ache inside of her entire body. With the help of Thor, she sat upright again with one of Thor's hands supporting her back slightly, just in case she was still not completely alright.

"What happened?" she asked, groggily, managing to look at him though seeing only a fuzzy image of Thor.

"The energy signature from the Tesseract was located here on the helicarrier. We are currently under attack," said Thor, Maria's eyes widening at his words and her vision becoming slightly clearer.

"What-" she started but her sentence was interrupted by the sound of a loud roar coming from across the lab they were currently in.

The both of them looked towards where the sound had come from which was when Maria for the first time noticed the gaping hole in the wall on the opposite side of the lab. She also noticed the destruction in the lab, the tables that were flipped over and all the equipment being destroyed. She realized that something must have exploded and that that explosion was the cause of her being on the other side of the room right now, with a burning headache.

"Oh my God…" said Maria, shakenly standing up.

Thor grabbed her arm as she wobbled slightly while standing there. While walking through the rubble towards the other side of the room, she held a tight grip on Thor's arm, afraid that she might fall and cut herself on some of the broken glass that was laying on the floor. Her balance was not what it had been before the explosion.

"Banner…" breathed Maria, realizing where the roar could have come from. "Where is everyone?"

"The captain and the man of iron went together to fix something… an engine I think while director Fury went to the bridge. Lady Natasha and doctor Banner fell down there…" said Thor, trailing off at the end as he looked down the hole in the wall, seeing the storage that was located underneath of the level they were currently standing on. There was no sign of either Natasha or Banner.

"Oh no… Natasha," said Maria worriedly. "She's down there with the Hulk."

"I will take him down," said Thor with a nod of his head before he walked towards the edge of the broken lab.

"Wait," said Maria, making the God of thunder glance back at her as Maria searched the rubble next to her feet for something in particular. "Loki was controlling us, right? That's the only reasonable reason for the anger I felt towards Tony. I don't hate him, but that forced anger I felt towards him was worse than hatred. Loki's the only explanation to that."

Thor nodded his head, agreeing with her; "Aye, I believe your theory. He wanted to break the team apart."

"Thor…" whispered Maria as she realized what was missing amongst the rubble. "Where's the scepter?"

The moment the question was asked, Thor started to search through the rubble himself, an unnerved look on his face. He bent down, using his hands to lift larger pieces of the lab's wall away from the floor though finding nothing that could even help them to understand what had happened to the scepter. It was gone.

"Did anyone enter?" asked Maria, making Thor look over at her.

"Some agents entered after the explosion. Fury went with them to the bridge," said Thor.

"You said we were under attack," said Maria, earning a nod from Thor before his eyes widened, realizing what Maria was thinking.

"This was all a part of his plan. He's escaping," said Thor.

Maria nodded her head, pressing her finger to the earpiece in her ear. "Loki is trying to escape. Does anyone copy? We need extra men around Loki's cage!"

 _"I hear you, Dalton,"_ replied Fury's voice. _"Extra men are sent. Now, the Hulk's in the lower decks. Get Thor's ass down there and help my agents!"_

She looked at the Norse God who was watching her intently. "We need to get to the Hulk."

"We?" asked Thor as Maria jumped down the cut out piece of the lab, landing on the deck below them with a roll in order to not hurt her feet in any way.

Thor landed, much more gracefully then Maria, next to her with a worried look on his face. "The Hulk's a mindless beast."

"He's still Banner," replied Maria, turning to Thor the moment she was back up on her feet. "But yes… he's dangerous and can take down this entire ship without a blink of an eye."

"And you want to come with me?" asked Thor, causing Maria to smirk.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," said Maria, earning a laugh from Thor.

"Then, let's go," he replied as Maria took out her sword from her belt, gripping it tightly while she and Thor ran through the corridors, following the trail of destruction to where the Hulk would be.

Obviously, Maria realized that this would be very dangerous and although she wasn't planning on fighting against the _Hulk_ , she wasn't going to stay behind either. She'd much rather be standing pressed against a wall in the same room as a fight then have to report that she was casually waiting for the entire attack to end so she could come out of her empty little room again.

As they entered a more open area of the helicarrier, they saw Natasha on the floor, pressing herself against the wall as the Hulk stood in front of her, roaring. The moment he lifted his fist to try and hit Romanoff, Thor charged at him and jumped against him, sending them both flying away from Natasha. Maria quickly crouched down next to the red-haired agent, seeing her shaking.

"It's okay," she said, placing her sword next to her. "Thor's dealing with the big guy."

Natasha nodded her head slowly, avoiding eye contact with Maria. She curled her legs up, hugging her knees close to herself and it surprised Maria to see the professional spy so fragile and shaken. After all, Natasha always presented herself as fearless and careless though that wasn't exactly what she was. For some reason, this made Maria grow more at ease with the agent and she smiled a soft smile at her although Romanoff wasn't looking at her.

"Are you hurt?" asked Maria, earning a shake of Natasha's head.

A clang was heard and suddenly, the Hulk came flying past them. Maria grabbed her sword again as she saw him hit the wall, leaving a not so discreet dent in it behind, before he shook his head. He stood up, his green and rage filled eyes landing on Maria as he furrowed his brow angrily. He bared his teeth at Maria and for a moment, Maria was amazed at the fact that she could see the outlines of Bruce's face in the face of the Hulk. However, as he roared, Maria was pushed back into reality and fear overtook her.

However, before the Hulk managed to start charging towards her, Mjölnir came flying against his face, making his attention turn back to Thor who had a playful smirk on his lips as the Hulk charged at him instead. She watched them attack each other, finding it rather scary how Thor was almost, or even as, strong as the Hulk was. Every hit that the Norse God got was like nothing for Thor which in turn only made the Hulk angrier. It wasn't until the Hulk grabbed Thor and jumped up through the ceiling, landing on the decks above them that Maria snapped back into reality again, realizing she had to do something herself as well.

Although she couldn't take on the Hulk, maybe she could help on some other part of the helicarrier.

"I copy…" said Natasha suddenly, making Maria look back at her. The agent stood up, exchanged a look with her and walked away. She was limping slightly but nothing too bad.

"Nat?" asked Maria but the agent simply continued to walk

The atmosphere around Natasha told Maria to not pursue her, although she was curious as to where she was going away. Instead, she turned away and looked up through the hole through which Thor and the Hulk had gone a minute earlier.

"Thor!?" she called as she heard no indication of a fight going on up there. Earlier on, she had heard muffled sounds of a fight going on followed by the sounds of someone shooting with rapid bullets. Though now, there was nothing but silence.

She let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding when Thor's head popped up. He stretched out his hand, wanting her to climb up. Quickly, she grabbed a few crates and stacked them on top of each other before climbing up and grabbing Thor's hand. With ease, Thor lifted her up through the hole and placed her next to him.

"Where's Bruce?" asked Maria to which Thor simply gestured towards the open cargo door. "Oh no…"

"He won't die. I'm sure of it," said Thor reassuringly.

"Maybe not… but he was still a member of this team," said Maria, making Thor look down at the floor before they both stood up. With Mjölnir in his hand, Thor started to walk away and Maria quickly followed, her sword in her hand.

"Where are we going?" asked Maria.

"Someone needs to guard Loki's cell. They're here to free him, after all," said Thor, earning an approving nod.

They walked quickly in silence for a while, until the entire helicarrier suddenly jolted, causing Maria to bump against the wall.

"What was that?" asked Maria, earning a shrug from Thor before they both continued walking.

"I don't know," replied Thor quietly as they arrived at the door that led into the room where Loki was being held. It was wide open and no guards were placed there.

They both exchanged a look with each other before shrugging and walking inside. They saw Loki still in the cell and for a moment, Maria felt calm as she knew for a fact that Loki was still imprisoned and unable to get away from them. As long as he was imprisoned, he couldn't do any harm to the world. However, suddenly, the doors opened and Loki stepped out to stand in the doorway of his cell. His eyes locked with Thor's as he and Maria both ran towards him, preparing their weapons in the run. Though, the moment they reached Loki and charged against him, he crouched down, smirking. Both Maria and Thor ran right through him, Thor falling to the floor as he had tried to jump at Loki, while Maria ran against the glass on the opposite side of the cell as she had simply charged at Loki.

"Are you ever not going to fall for that?" asked Loki as the doors shut closed behind them, locking Thor and Maria in the cell he had been in only seconds ago.

Panic overtook her as she ran towards the doors, bumping against the glass and letting her sword fall to the floor. Her hands were pressed against the glass as she watched Loki walk over to the agent that had let him out, standing by the control panels and smirking at Thor and Maria.

With a rage filled sound erupting from Thor's throat, he hit the glass doors with Mjölnir, causing the entire cell to jolt as the clasps that were holding it in place in the room loosened.

"Shit… It's meant for the Hulk! There's a freaking hatch underneath of us!" said Maria, backing away from the glass along with Thor.

"You humans think us immortal," said Loki, looking straight at Maria as he spoke. "Should we test that?"

She quickly pressed her finger against her earpiece. "Fury? Steve? Anyone. Me and Thor are locked in Loki's cell… he's going to press the button. Please… help…"

Suddenly, the agent that had been helping Loki was knocked out by Coulson himself, standing there with one of the Phase 2 prototypes in his hands. The agent had been standing a little further away from Loki in order to give him some space which meant that Coulson himself was only standing a few meters away from Loki who, at the moment, had his hands raised.

"Move away please," said Coulson, earning a sigh of relief from Maria. "Like this? We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does. You wanna find out?"

It was Maria who first spotted it. The little bit of green magic that flowed behind Coulson. It was mixed with a little bit of gold and suddenly, Loki was standing behind Coulson as well, smirking at Maria as she screamed for Phil to go away from there. However, when Phil looked at her with a confused look on his face, Loki pierced his scepter through Coulson's chest, making him fall to the ground with the weapon still in his lap. A little stain of blood was starting to appear on his white shirt.

"No!" cried Maria and Thor at the same time, both charging towards the glass wall separating them from the outside world.

"Phil…" whispered Maria.

As Loki walked past Phil, he stared at Thor and Maria. The tip of his scepter was now bloodied with the blood of Phil Coulson, one of the first people that had been nice to Maria when she had joined SHIELD. The one man that had taught her so much about SHIELD. And now, he was hurt and most certainly, he was going to die.

She watched with teary eyes as Loki walked over to the control panel, raising his free hand above the red button that would most certainly open up the hatch underneath them, sending them both flying downwards to their death. At least, Maria's death.

 _"Maria!? Are you okay?"_

It was Steve's voice and her frown turned into a distressed look on her face. Thor grabbed her arm, pushing her closer to his chest and holding her tightly against him with his free arm. The sound of Steve's voice had made her heart sink even more as she stared at Phil who was now struggling to breathe, the little red dot on his shirt growing larger each second that passed.

"Steve…" she said, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. "We tried…"

 _"Maria!? Where a-"_

Loki pressed the button and the cell fell down, the link between her and Steve's earpieces breaking as she left the helicarrier. Her stomach turned as her feet were lifted off of the floor while all sense of gravity disappeared around them. For a moment, the cell stayed completely still in the air as it fell, not twirling or going around in circles and during that time, her sword came slowly flying towards her. She stretched out her hand towards it, gripping it and managing to place it in her belt before both she and Thor were thrown against the glass, the cell starting to twirl around as the velocity increased.

They were falling to their deaths.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading! Don't forget to let me know what you thought by leaving a comment!**


	14. Chapter 14, Battle of New York, Part 1

**Make You Feel My Love ~Book I~**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Marvel or any of its characters or movies/series. All I own is my own OC and  her story.

* * *

 **~ Chapter 14 ~  
The Battle of New York, Part 1  
**

Thor and Maria twirled and twirled around in the air, hitting each and every part of the glass walls that could be hit. They had lost grip of each other a while ago and it wasn't until Thor managed to grab a hold of the ceiling that Maria caught a hold of Thor again. Her entire stomach felt like it was churning and she felt completely dizzy. Thor held an arm around her, looking out through the glass at the ground that they approached at a very fast speed.

"What do we do!?" exclaimed Maria as her fingers slowly started to lose their feeling from the tight grip she held on Thor's armor.

With Mjölnir in his free hand, he pointed it at the opposite side of the cell, a determined look on his face.

"Hold on!" he called to Maria, making her cling to his suit as best as she could, before Thor suddenly jumped, breaking through the glass with Mjölnir before flying a little while in the air and then hurdling towards the ground.

Luckily, Thor had managed to get out as they were close to the ground, right before the cell was going to hit the ground, and so, they weren't too high up in the sky. As they landed, Thor shifted so that he was underneath of Maria, him taking the hit of the ground while Maria simply clung to him, biting down as hard as she could in order to not scream out. It was intense and scary for Maria, dirt flying everywhere as they both glided on the ground slightly before they came to a stop. Neither of them moved even when they had stopped gliding. For Maria, the reason was because she had to comprehend what she had just done. She had fallen from the sky and _landed_ on the ground again without being hurt at all. It was most certainly something that she had never thought she would do in her entire life.

"I can't believe… I survived that," panted Maria, rolling off of Thor and laying herself down in the grass next to him instead.

"You are strong… I never doubted you wouldn't," said Thor, panting as well.

"Are you okay?" asked Maria, remembering what had happened before the fall; Loki escaping and Phil being stabbed.

She understood that it must have been awful to see ones brother suddenly turn into a murdering maniac. Although she had always seen Loki like that, from what she understood, Thor hadn't always known Loki as the monster he actually was.

"Yes. I am used to worse falls and more beatings from home," he said, sitting up with a grunt.

"I didn't mean that…" said Maria quietly, looking up at him as she stayed on the ground.

He froze and tensed, realizing what she had meant. He glanced over at her, his eyes showing what she had feared for: realization and discouragement. She sat up as well, feeling a piece of grass falling from her head which made her wonder how awful she actually looked after that fall.

"I didn't see it…" said Thor quietly. "I didn't see what my broth- what Loki had become. When he attacked your planet… I thought he was just confused. He had a reason. But this… he wants to take over the entire planet. He kills without caring and he… he has changed."

"It's painful," concluded Maria with a nod of her head. "I know how it feels to watch someone change in front of your eyes. Someone you used to love… a family member. And it's so painful. All you can really do, is make it through this period in your life the best you can. That's all you can do."

Thor nodded, standing up before extending his hand to her, helping her up. She groaned slightly as her entire body felt sore, but smiled nonetheless at him as a thank you. The God of Thunder walked over to where his hammer was laying, raising his hand over it but not picking it up nor making it fly up into his hands. She watched him with curious eyes as his hand fell back to rest beside his hip.

"Thor?" asked Maria quietly. "Please, you can't give up now. The battle's only begun."

"He was my brother," said Thor as Maria walked over to him, placing a hand on his arm.

"I know…" she said. "I lost my mother to the darkness as well. She succumbed to it, just like Loki, making all the wrong choices and not caring about the hurt it inflicted on me and the people that were close to her. I stopped loving her."

Thor looked at her with curious eyes, though Maria could see how lost he felt and she immediately recognized herself in those eyes. Her childhood-self, that is.

"You know what I did?" she asked, making Thor shake his head slightly. She offered him a smile, knowing what he needed to here from her was the biggest lie that she was going to say ever. Though if it helped Thor to do what she never did, then maybe she'd be able to make him feel better. Slowly, she let her hand fall down to his hand, grabbing it as she did. Carefully and with a smile on her lips, she guided his hand to Mjölnir, placing his hand ontop of his hammer, not letting her hand leave his for a second. "I fought," she said, Thor not seeing her smile falter slightly as she said this.

When Thor lifted it up, Maria let go of his hand, taking a step back as Thor observed his hammer with thoughtful eyes.

"Loki was my brother," said he, the sound of thunder rumbling above them although the sun still shone. "He was my friend and the one person I would've fought until my last breath for. Now, I fight for this planet to be free from him."

"You and me both," said Maria, squealing slightly as Thor grabbed her by the waist again, placing a kiss on top of her head with a grin plastered on his lips.

"You are a very amazing lady, lady Maria!" he roared before jumping up and flying through the air, Maria clinging to his side while, unfortunately, screaming her lungs out which only made Thor chuckle and smile at her.

* * *

When they arrived at New York again, they immediately made their way towards the thing that caught their eyes. It looked like something - from the rooftop of none other building but the Stark Tower - was projecting a large, round hole into the sky above the tower. However, it was no projection nor was it an illusion, something Maria had wished for. Instead, it looked like a rip in the sky, spewing out creatures that flew down to Midtown, attacking the city. Fires existed on nearly every street as they flew over them and people were running around, panicking while those creatures attacked them or started to herd them into buildings. Maria couldn't help but wonder why they were herding the people into those buildings though she was determined to find out the reason.

"Put me down on the ground," said Maria, earning a look from Thor. "Your talk with Loki should be between the two of you."

Thor nodded his head, landing on the streets below Stark Tower graciously, letting go of her waist. "Besides… I'm no use against Loki. We've already established that once."

Thor smirked; "But you are of use in the team. The Chitauries are the most vulnerable when you cut their air supply off. Without it, they won't make it for longer than a minute," said Thor, earning a nod from Maria before he suddenly grabbed her sword from her belt, holding it out in between them. "Be careful."

He handed her the sword, earning a smile from Maria before he flew up towards the tower's highest floors, hoping to find Loki somewhere there. That had been their plan that they had come up with after Maria had finally gotten used to flying. They had decided that to convince Loki to stop this invasion would be the smartest way to go by. However, Maria had silently agreed on not going against Loki again. The last time that happened, she had been of no use and if she was knocked out by him or worse, she wouldn't be able to do anything at all to help during the invasion.

As she watched the creatures come through the portal up in the sky, she waited patiently for them to come close enough for her to either kill them or throw a dagger towards them. However, her focus on the aliens was disturbed by her phone suddenly ringing. For a moment,

Quickly, Maria walked over to one of the buildings where the Chitauri had herded a group of people into a dancing club. The area was large enough for the Chitauri to have the entire group of people there and since the people were too scared to do anything, they simply stood there as two Chitauri stood close by the doors, fiddling with something that Maria couldn't see as their backs were turned to her. Before entering the building, she made sure her mask was over her eyes as she did not want anyone, even now during an invasion like this, to see her face. After all, there could be pictures of her from the time she worked for the same darkness that had consumed her mother and the people would not be happy if one of their heroes had a past like that.

 _Did I actually refer to myself as a hero?_ she thought before opening the doors, her sword steadily pointing to the two aliens as they turned around to look at her, a growl escaping their lips.

They dropped the thing they had been fiddling with in order to grab their weapons though Maria never allowed them to do this. Instead, she charged at them, gliding underneath of their legs which they had not expected, before using her sword to cut off their air supply, just like Thor had told Maria to do. They started to squeal, grabbing at their masks that they were wearing over where Humans have their noses and mouth. Though they never suffered for long as Maria quickly pushed the pointy end of her sword through both of their chests, the second Chitauri falling on top of his fellow friend. She panted heavily as her eyes looked at the blood that dripped off of her sword, it was no Human blood as it was a strange purple color, though it was still blood and she had still killed two intellectual beings. It had been years since she had killed something and she couldn't help but feel frightened at how numb she felt afterwards. It was the same numbness she had felt the last time she had killed and it scared her to think that it was still there.

Quickly, she recovered and turned back around again, facing the group of people again.

"Stay in here, you'll be safe indoors," said Maria, earning a nod from a man holding his son close to him.

Her eyes noticed the small device that the two aliens had been fiddling with and she crouched down beneath it, inspecting it. She let her gloved hands touch it though she didn't dare to do anything with hit. Instead, she simply let it be.

When she exited the danceclub, a strange buzzing noise was heard which confused her for a moment until she realized what it was. She simply stared down at her belt, unsure of why her phone was even in there and why it was still working. After all, she had fallen more times that day than she had ever done in her entire life and she had been certain that her phone was damaged by this point. Slowly, she took her phone out, seeing the picture of the caller and smiling softly before worry overtook her. What if the creatures got to Matt!?

"Hello?"

 _"What the hell is going on!? Where are you!?"_

"Matt, stay inside. Tell everyone you know to stay away from the streets," said Maria loudly as she noticed aliens coming her way. "Look. I'm fine. Just stay indoors."

 _"But the news-"_

"Sorry, Matt," she said before hanging up, throwing her phone away as she had no time to place it back in her belt when a lonely Chitauri attacked her.

He had a gun, however, and he stayed away from her meaning that she couldn't come close to it without it shooting multiple shots of blue 'bullets' her way. Luckily, she managed to dodge them all but had it not been for a very familiar shield bouncing against the head of the creature, she would've been killed.

"Maria!?" exclaimed Steve as his shield bounced back to him, Steve catching it with ease. "How…"

Maria smiled widely before running towards him, seeing Natasha and _Clint_ behind him, smirking at her and Steve as they embraced. While Maria placed her arms around his neck, holding him close to her, Steve buried his face against her neck, breathing in her scent although she was sure that the scent wasn't very nice after two full days of being on a mission.

"I thought that you were… the cell… Coulson," said Steve silently as he leaned back, not letting go of Maria but simply looking at her.

"I know," said Maria silently, her hand cupping his cheek as her eyes fluttered from his lips to his eyes. "But I didn't die… Thanks to Thor."

"I'll have to thank him later," said Steve before embracing her again, making Maria smile widely.

"Hey," said Clint, crossing his arms over his chest. "Don't I get any love?"

Maria looked at him, this being the second time she met her supervising officer. "Oh…" she said, breaking the hug.

"Yeah, I'm back," said Clint. "And you're still under my supervision. No funny business during a mission."

He said this with an amused tone to his voice, so Maria simply smiled at him. Suddenly, a loud noise boomed from above them, or more exactly, from the portal in the sky. Civilians ran past them, screaming and hoping to get away from whatever was happening as quickly as possible. The four heroes turned their heads up towards the sky, seeing something very strange.

Not only were there now Chitauri coming out from the portal, but also a large beast. It reminded Maria a little bit of a whale, or at least a very big fish, though with armor on and large teeth. It looked calm and Maria suspected they were used in the same way as horses were used back in the old day. However, these things were larger and more destructive if they accidentally didn't see a skyscraper. It was at least as large as the Stark Tower and it made all four of them turn silent.

It flew right over their heads, the four heroes seeing multiple Chitauri jumped out of the armor it was wearing, all of them jumping against the buildings and looking down at the four of them.

"Foot soldiers…" said Maria quietly.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" asked Steve, Maria turning her ear piece back on in order to hear his reply.

 _"Seeing… still working on believing. Where's Banner? Has he showed up yet?"_

"Banner?" asked Steve curiously.

 _"Just keep me posted."_

"Let's get some cover," said Natasha before the Chitauri around them started shooting at them, some climbing down to stand on the street.

Maria dodged shots, ran and looked around at everything, making sure nothing followed her or attacked her, as she ran with the others towards some of the flipped over cars. Steve used his shield to dodge some of the shots that were shot towards him and Maria before they regrouped at the car.

"We've got civilians trapped up ahead," said Clint as a couple of Chitauri vessels flew over them at a high speed.

"Again? I've already saved a couple of people from those Chitauries… why are they doing that?" asked Maria, earning a look from Clint.

"You saved a group of people from some Chitauries on your own?" he asked, earning a roll of Maria's eyes.

"She's a grown woman, Barton," said Natasha, a smirk playing on Maria's lips.

Steve peeked out over the car, sighing. "Loki," he said.

As Loki and the other Chitauri vessels passed the streets they flew over, they blew almost everything up, hurting people and leaving destruction behind. Maria wondered briefly what kind of world Loki wanted to rule. A broken one or not? Though her thoughts suddenly wandered to Thor who had been with Loki earlier. Where was he now? Was he okay?

"They're fish in a barrel down there," said Steve, referring to the trapped civilians, before suddenly, a Chitauri shot towards them, making them all jump slightly as Natasha started shooting towards the group pf aliens while Clint moved away from the car to get closer to it.

"We got this. It's good. Go," said Natasha, turning towards Steve.

"You think you can hold them off?" asked Steve, looking at Maria and then at Clint.

"Captain… It'll be my genuine pleasure," said Clint before shooting an arrow at the Chitauri, it hitting one of them before shooting at the surrounding ones, taking five out at a time.

"Be careful," said Maria as she grabbed a hold of Steve's arm, earning a nod from Steve.

He was about to stand up and go away, when Maria grabbed his arm again, making him look back at her. Her heart told her to not let go of him as this was a dangerous battle that was going on, but she knew those civilians were more important than the beginning of their relationship.

"Maria-" he said as Maria didn't let him go, though she stopped him from talking by pressing her lips against his cheek. It was a bold move and it wasn't really what she had expected that she would do herself, but she still did it. "I'll be back."

Maria nodded. "You better be."

With that said, Steve left, shielding himself with his shield from some Chitauri shooting at him. Maria quickly took out her dagger, throwing it at the Chitauri and hitting it in the neck, causing it to stop firing at Steve so he could get away without getting hurt.

"What did I tell you?" said Clint as Maria and Natasha snuck towards the car where Clint was standing, shooting at the Chitauri foot soldiers. "No funny business on a mission."

* * *

 **Thank you for reading! Don't forget to let me know what you thought by leaving a comment!**


	15. Chapter 15, Battle of New York, Part 2

**Make You Feel My Love ~Book I~**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Marvel or any of its characters or movies/series. All I own is my own OC and  her story.

* * *

 **~ Chapter 15 ~  
The Battle of New York, Part 2  
**

"There are people trapped in that bus!" called Maria to Natasha and Clint as she ran towards another Chitauri, sliding underneath his legs and cutting of the small chord that was attached to the mask over its face, causing it to drop the weapon it was holding before Maria shoved her sword through the creature's stomach.

"I'll help them. You hold them off!" said Clint, earning a nod from both Natasha and Maria.

"Pretty fun, aye?" asked Natasha sarcastically as she shot a Chitauri that was about to shoot Maria in the head.

"Yes. I'm have the time of my life," said Maria with a roll of her eyes as she threw her dagger at another Chitauri, causing it to penetrate its skull before it fell to the floor dead.

On her way over to her dagger, she got rid of three more Chitauris, not realizing the bravery she was feeling as she did this. Not for a single second did she stop to think about the fact that this was scary or that she was being useless as she couldn't fly nor shoot laser-beams or lightning towards the creatures. Instead, she focused on doing what she could do. Which was take out as many of the foot soldiers as possible.

As Clint was finished with helping the civilians away from the fighting, showing them the way inside of one of the buildings where they were supposed to be more safe than out on the streets, though no one was quite sure of that, he rejoined with Natasha as Maria grabbed her dagger from the dead Chitauri, intent on not losing a single one of them during the battle as they were perfectly balanced for her. She looked over at the two agents, seeing them standing behind a car, shooting with either guns or arrows at the Chitauri that came their way and Maria's way. Quickly, Maria lifted her sword and started attacking herself, earning a few scrapes from poorly dodged shots and the nails of the Chitauri. They were quite long and sharp, actually.

"Just like Budapest all over again!" called Natasha to Clint, earning a glance from him before he continued to shoot arrows.

"You and I remember Budapest very differently," said Clint, earning a chuckle from Maria before she jogged back towards Clint, the last Chitauri of the group that had been attacking them falling down to the ground.

She panted, looking at the two agents who all let their weapons lower slightly before Clint tensed again, looking at something behind Maria. She quickly whipped around, seeing another group of Chitauris coming their way which made her sigh an agitated sigh.

"Don't they ever stop coming," she muttered before raising her sword.

"I'm already out of bullets," said Natasha, throwing her guns to the ground. "Maria, I'm with you on short range."

"Good," said Maria, gripping her sword with both hands before both women ran towards the Chitauri, dodging the shots that were sent towards them while, one by one, Clint took out most of the Chitauris as the women ran towards them.

However, their luck ran out quickly as the Chitauri managed to get at Clint, causing his protective arrows to stop coming, meaning Natasha and Maria had to watch their backs extra carefully, something Maria wasn't fully used to. While Natasha had found a way to use one of the Chitauris weapons against them, Maria was overwhelmed with aliens, backing away from them and dodging as best as she could. However, her head was weary as fighting drained her of energy fast and so, she missed one shot. Had she not been dodging other shots, it would've hit her straight in the head. Luckily though, it only hit her in the left shoulder. It burned through her suit and created a deep wound, causing her to stumble back and drop her sword in the process.

She thought she was doomed as she saw the Chitauris aim at her, however, lightning struck down from the sky, immobilizing or even killing the aliens around her. Thor landed next to her with a thump, extending his hand towards her as the street suddenly calmed down, Thor having taken out the entire group of Chitauris that had been attacking the three heroes.

"Thanks," she said, groaning as he lifted her up.

"You are hurt," stated Thor.

"Just a scratch," shrugged Maria as they both walked over to Natasha and Clint who had been joined by Steve, Maria picking up her sword on the way. "Are you okay? What happened up there?"

Thor's eyes flickered down to the ground at her question before he shook his head, giving her enough of an answer for her to understand that it indeed didn't go quite well. After all, if it had gone well and Loki would've agreed to not keep the invasion going anymore, then she wouldn't have seen Loki up there with all of those aliens earlier on, would she?

"What's the story upstairs?" asked Steve as he walked over to the two of them, his eyes flickering between the wound on Maria's shoulder to Thor.

"The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable," reported Thor.

 _"Thor's right. We gotta deal with these guys,"_ said Tony through the com as he flew above them, continuing to shoot at the Chitauris that were flying above their heads.

"How do we do this?" asked Natasha.

"As a team," said Steve, his eyes meeting Maria who nodded her head.

"I have unfinished business with Loki," said Thor.

"Yeah, well get in line," said Clint, one of his arrows in his hands as he fiddled with it.

"Save it," ordered Steve, turning into full Captain America mode. "Loki's gonna keep this fight focused on us, so that's what we need. Without him these things could run wild. We got Stark up top-"

"Steve," said Maria, pointing at something rather odd behind him.

He quickly turned around, his worried look changing into one of confusion and relief as he saw Bruce Banner driving towards them on a motorcycle. Maria felt relieved to know that Bruce hadn't been hurt although he had, just like her, gone for a freefall.

The five of them walked over to Bruce as he stopped, getting of the bike in the progress before looking at the team with an unsure smile on his lips.

"So…" said Bruce, facing the entire team as he stood opposite of them. "This all seems horrible."

"I've seen worse," said Natasha, earning a glare from Maria. "No, we could use a little worse."

Maria's look softened and Natasha smiled at her before looking back at Bruce.

"Stark, we got him," said Steve, placing his finger against where the earpiece was supposed to be, however his mask made it impossible for him to actually touch it, though it still worked to turn it on.

 _"Banner?"_

"Just like you said," said Steve with a nod towards Bruce.

 _"Then tell him to suit up. I'm bringing the party to you."_

Maria furrowed her brow in confusion at Stark's words before she saw Tony round a corner up in the air, flying towards them. For a moment, the entire place was completely silent except for the sound of the Iron Man's thrusters. Suddenly, the large whale-creature rounded the corner as well, taking of a piece of the building in the process though.

"I don't see how that's a party," said Natasha quietly as it came flying towards them.

"Doctor Banner," said Steve as Bruce turned towards the creature. "Now might be a really good time for you to get angry."

"That's my secret, cap… I'm always angry," said Bruce before suddenly, right in front of them, changing into the Hulk. His shirt ripped and he grew at least three sizes before he placed his fist out, making it collide with the whale-creature's face.

With the help of the incredible force the Hulk possessed, he managed to make the whale-creature's armor rapture and break, making it crack open to reveal the creature underneath of it. Tony quickly took this opportunity to send a rocket towards the creature that exploded as a part of the creature's body was exposed thanks to the odd angle the creature was in which made the armor open up slightly. When the creature landed on the ground, it was dead.

When the rocket had exploded, Steve had placed an arm around Maria's waist, crouching down with her and placing his shield in front of the both of them, protecting them from the explosion. In the process, he also protected Clint and Natasha who had crouched down behind them while Thor simply used Mjölnir to punch away whatever debris that was sent his way.

After that happened, the Chitauri all turned their focus on the Avengers, noticing how they had taken out one of their whale-creatures and not sounding nor looking rather amused by that fact. All the Avengers regrouped, placing themselves in a round circle, their backs against each other and their weapons pointing towards the aliens. The Hulk let out a roar towards the aliens and Maria smirked, realizing that the once quite broken group of messed up people with strange backgrounds and strange equipment or abilities, was now a team. They were now the Avengers.

However, her smirk faded away as they all saw two more of the whale-creatures come through the portal followed by even more Chitauris.

"Call it, captain," said Tony, standing next to Maria as Steve shifted so that he was standing in front of the entire team.

"Alright, listen up," said Steve, looking at the team. "Until we can close that portal up there we'll need to contain it. Barton; I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark; you've got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."

Both Barton and Stark nodded their heads before Clint turned towards Tony, bow in hand. "Can you give me a lift?"

"Right, better clench up, Legolas," said Tony before grabbing Clint and flying up into the air, placing Clint on the building he was assigned to stand on by Steve before starting on his own part of the plan, keeping the aliens within three blocks from the portal.

"Thor; you gotta try and bottleneck that portal, slow them down," said Steve, earning the attention from the team again. "You got the lightning. Light those bastards up."

And with that, Thor flew off as well, leaving Natasha, Maria and Steve on the ground. "We stay here on the ground. Keep the fighting here. And, Hulk: Smash."

With a grin, the Hulk jumped up towards the Chitauri, immediately beginning to fight them by 'smashing' them.

* * *

With Chitauri flying above her head or running towards her and huge whale-creatures flying around, Maria felt both lost and focused as she continued to fight as best as she could. From time to time, the three of them would split up in order to help a few civilians away from somewhere. But other than that, they stuck together. Both Maria and Steve had learned how to take advantage of each other's abilities. For example, Maria could use Steve's shield; jumping on it and boosting herself in the air, jumping over a couple of Chitauri which in turn would make it easier for her to take out their devices on the back as they wouldn't be quick enough to turn around in time to kill her. With the devices shut off, she could easily and in her own time, take out the aliens. Steve, on the other hand, found it quite useful to have someone at hand who had a weapon of sorts with them. Meaning that he from time to time took one of Maria's daggers from her belt, using it to take out a few of the aliens.

This all went on and on. Sometimes Tony would fly past, helping out with getting rid of some Chitauri before flying on as would Thor. Clint's arrows had saved Maria's life more than once that day already and every time he did, she'd look up at him and make a gesture of gratitude towards him.

"None of this is going to mean a damn thing if we don't close that portal," said Natasha as Maria and Steve regrouped with her after rescuing some civilians from a bar, leading them down into the underground where it would be safer for them to be at. At the moment, it was quiet around them and they had some time to talk about the battle.

"Our biggest guns couldn't touch it," said Steve, the sound of bullets being fired echoing against the buildings.

"There has to be a way," said Maria, shaking her head.

"Well… maybe it's not about guns," said Natasha as she looked up towards the building where the device that kept the portal open was stood.

"You wanna go up there?" asked Maria, earning a nod from the agent.

"Like you said, there has to be a way," said Natasha.

"If you wanna get up there, you're gonna need a ride," said Steve, a couple of the Chitauri flying over their heads on their strange ships.

"I've got one," said Natasha, her eyes on the Chitauri above them, indicating that she was going to hitch a ride with one of them. "Could use a boost though."

"Are you sure about this?" asked Steve, earning a nod from Natasha as Steve placed his shield in the correct position for a boost, knowing how it worked by now as he had boosted Maria multiple times that day already.

"Yeah, it's gonna be fun," said Natasha, sarcastically, before she ran towards Steve, jumping up on his shield, Steve boosting her up at the same time as she jumped up towards one of the ships and grabbing a hold of it.

"Brave," said Maria, earning a nod from Steve before a couple of Chitauris shot a few shots their way, causing Steve to place himself in front of Maria, shielding them both from the shots.

As Maria and Steve threw themselves into the fight with those Chitauris, Tony landed beside them, helping them out by sending a few beams against the Chitauris closest to them, even using Steve's shield once to make the beam bounce to where Steve wanted it to. With his help, the group of Chitauris had degraded by half, meaning a number that the two of them could handle and so, he flew away again.

 _"Cap, in the bank on 42nd street they've cornered a lot of civilians."_

Hawkeye's voice said through their earpieces. "I'm on it. Maria, stay here. Take these out."

Maria nodded her head before immediately charging at the Chitauris running towards her, once again sliding underneath their legs and using her sword skills to take them down. It was no easy match for her, but it wasn't hard either as Clint kept a close eye on her, shooting an arrow at those aliens she missed to keep an eye on.

 _42nd street…_ she thought as the last Chitaurian was put down. She wiped her sword clean on one of the dead bodies before starting to run towards where Steve was supposed to be, killing a few creatures on the way.

Once she got to where Steve was supposed to be, she saw a flash of blue light appear from inside the bank before Steve came hurdling out of the window, falling with his stomach first on a car that was parked outside. As she hurried over to him, worry filling her heart, she saw a couple of policemen escort some civilians out of the bank at which she smiled, knowing that some more people were going to survive the battle thanks to Steve.

"Steve," she said as she arrived to him, letting him place a hand on her shoulder in order to get off the car.

He placed a hand on his stomach, groaning slightly and Maria noticed his mask had been torn off of him. She placed a hand against his cheek as she supported him, worriedly placing her other arm around his waist.

"I'm fine," he said quietly. "Have to be fine."

"Let's stick together from now on," she said, earning a nod from Steve before he let go of her shoulder, causing Maria to let go of him as well. He supported his own weight, stretching out his back before looking back at her with a serious look on his face.

"Back to work," he said before they started walking away from the bank, together.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading! Don't forget to let me know what you thought by leaving a comment!**


	16. Chapter 16, Tony Stark a Brave Man

**Make You Feel My Love ~Book I~**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Marvel or any of its characters or movies/series. All I own is my own OC and  her story.

* * *

 **~ Chapter 16 ~  
Tony Stark a Brave Man  
**

"Oomf…"

Maria was down on the ground, having missed a Chitauri that was standing behind her, aiming at her. Steve was occupied with some other Chitauris though he struggled to get to her as fast as possible. She turned towards the alien, supporting her weight on her elbows as she crawled away from the alien, her sword laying behind the alien itself which made it unreachable at the moment. Her stomach burned from the shot but she ignored it as best as she could. Her hands grabbed for her daggers but the alien was quicker, shooting a shot at her hand which made her scream out in pain as her entire hand burned and shook, losing her ability to move it.

"Maria!" called Steve before another Chitauri attacked him.

The alien in front of her made a strange noise, almost as if it was speaking to her. Though she couldn't understand a word it was saying and luckily, she didn't have to either as Thor threw Mjölnir at the alien, sending it flying away. As Thor walked over to her, she placed her hand in her lap, using her other hand to move it as it hurt far too much otherwise.

"Get to cover," said Thor, his eyes on her hand as he crouched down next to her.

"I want to help," she said, shaking her head.

"You are hurt. You have fought nobly, now let us do the rest," said Thor as Steve ran over to her, nearly sliding towards her as he crouched down a little too early.

"Are you okay?" he said frantically, his eyes seeing her bloody hand and stomach.

"Yes. They're just scratches," said Maria before groaning as she moved her hurt hand slightly. "Very painful scratches."

"Thor," said Steve before both men stood up, taking down some more aliens as they came their way.

Maria shuffled away from the fight, grabbing a dagger from her belt that she held in her left hand, the wrong hand meaning that if anything attacked her, she'd be dead. As she reached a car, she leaned her head against it, feeling the weariness from the battle falling down on her and realizing why she had lost focus on the battle. She was _exhausted_. More exhausted than she had been before and she was sure that if there hadn't been aliens around, trying to kill her and her team, she would've been able to fall asleep right on the spot.

It wasn't until she saw Steve get shot in the stomach, causing him to fall to the ground that Maria moved again, worry taking over her body as she crawled towards him, ignoring the pain that it caused to get dirt on her hurt hand. When she reached Steve, Thor had already taken care of most Chitauri around them and Maria slowly placed her unhurt on his head, combing through his tangled and dirty hair. He groaned as he sat up, Maria's hand falling back to the ground, her energy suddenly failing her.

"You okay?" she asked drowsily.

"Yeah," said Steve as Thor extended his hand towards Steve, helping him up.

"Ready for another round?" asked Thor to Steve.

"What, you getting sleepy?" asked Steve, earning a chuckle from Thor before both men looked down at Maria.

"Yes, I know. _I'm_ getting sleepy," she said, making both Steve and Thor chuckle.

 _"I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down,"_ said Natasha's voice through the earpiece.

"Do it!" said Steve.

 _"No, wait,"_ said Tony's voice, earning a confused face from Maria while Thor helped her up on her feet.

"Stark, these things are still coming," said Steve.

 _"I've got a nuke coming in. It's gonna blow in less than a minute."_

Maria's eyes widened as Thor looked at her confused.

"A missile…" she explained, earning an understanding nod from Thor who still had no earpiece.

 _"And I know just where to put it."_

"Tony! That's a one way trip!" called Maria anxiously.

 _"Maybe, maybe not."_

"Oh my God…" said Maria, placing her unhurt hand over her mouth as she saw Tony fly past them, above their heads, with the missile.

The moment both Tony and the missile were through the portal, Maria felt like the city was safe. The portal could be closed, the missile was gone… There were just a few more Chitauri to hunt down, but that wasn't going to cost them too much time. However, her silent celebration was short-lived as she suddenly realized that if Tony indeed would've returned… he would've done so already.

"Come on…" she said as she moved closer to Steve. "Please…"

The Chitauri that were closing in on them, suddenly collapsed. Even the whale-creatures did so. However, Tony wasn't returning. The other side of that portal, was outer space. Outer space was something Tony hadn't developed his suit for and as far as Maria knew, he couldn't survive in outer space.

"Close it…" said Steve quietly as Maria looked down at the ground, her eyes filling up with tears.

Although he had said some unfriendly things to her that day and although he had barely even spoken to her during the entire mission, they had still been close friends. Not to mention the fact that he had said those things under the influence of Loki which made it more understandable why he had said them in the first place. Tony Stark had been the man who gave her a job when she had needed it to sort out her life. After she had managed to get away from the bad guys she had worked with, she needed money in order to rebuild her life. Tony Stark gave her that and although it had been because of her being female in the very beginning, they both soon found that they could spend some hours together simply talking and being friends. Although they weren't close, he was still a friend of hers and she wanted him to survive this. He _had_ to survive this.

But when the blue light that surrounded the portal started to collapse upon itself until there was no portal anymore, Maria realized that the argument they had was the last conversation that they had had, ever. And so, she buried her face against Steve's shoulder, forcing back the tears she felt wanted to escape her eyes.

"Son of a gun," said Steve before placing a hand underneath her chin, forcing her to look up at him. "He got through."

Immediately, Maria looked up at the sky, seeing Tony free falling down from where the portal had once been. Happiness and relieve filled Maria and she smiled up at him, though soon realized something…

"He's not slowing down," said Thor but before he could fly up to the catch Tony, the Hulk caught him in midair.

He slid down buildings before landing on the ground, making sure he fell on his back so that Tony landed safely without getting hurt. Steve, Thor and Maria quickly ran up to them, crouching down next to Tony. With ease, Thor ripped off the Iron Man's suit's mask, revealing Stark's face. However, he wasn't looking up at them with wide and surprised eyes. Instead, his eyes were closed and he looked far too unconscious for Maria's liking. Quickly, Maria used her unhurt hand to check the billionaire's pulse, her shoulders slumping as she found none. Her saddened eyes travelled to the arc reactor and it wasn't until she found it without it's usual, blue light that she understood that Tony was no longer alive.

A hand was placed on her shoulder, though she was unsure of whose it was as her eyes stopped fighting the tears, letting them fall down her cheeks and clouding her vision. It was the loud roar of the Hulk that made both her and Tony jump, something that made Maria widen her eyes at the man laying down on the ground in front of her.

"What the… What just happened?" he asked, his eyes flickering between the Hulk, Maria, Steve and Thor. "Please tell me nobody kissed me…" he said, earning a chuckle from Steve and Thor as Tony was back to his usual self. "Although… I wouldn't mind you kissing me."

At his comment, Maria hit Tony's arm, which didn't cause much effect as his arm was protected by his suit, only resulting in some pain on Maria's side.

"Are you crying? Are you crying… over me?" asked Tony, his eyes staring at Maria.

"Shut up…" she said, sniffling slightly.

"We won," said Steve quietly, making Maria look at him with a smile on her face.

"Alright…. Yay, good job guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day," said Tony. "Have you ever tried Shawarma before? There's a Shawarma joint about two blocks from here…"

"We are not finished yet," said Thor, making Maria's smile fade slightly.

"Loki…" she whispered.

"Then, Shawarma after," said Tony, earning a nod from Maria before he sat up with a groan.

"Let's gather the others and head back up to Stark Tower," said Steve as Thor helped Tony up on his feet. "Natasha, Clint, meet us at Stark Tower. We've got someone to deal with there."

"Puny God," said the Hulk, making Maria look at him with a smile.

"Couldn't agree with you more," said Maria, earning a scoff from the Hulk before he started walking away with Tony and Thor, all three heading towards the Stark Tower.

Maria was about to follow as well when Steve grabbed her unhurt arm, hindering her from walking away as he turned her towards him, a soft smirk on his face.

"We won," said Steve quietly, earning a nod from Maria.

"We did," said Maria, placing her unhurt hand on Steve's cheek, brushing some dirt away from his cheek.

"Now that I can still blame this on adrenaline… I want to try something," said Steve.

As Maria was about to removed her hand from Steve's cheek, Steve grabbed her hand and lightly pressed it back against his cheek, Maria's eyes widening slightly at his action. A blush covered his cheeks as he slowly leaned in. Almost immediately, Maria leaned in as well and their noses had just began to touch when someone interrupted them with an amused tone to their voice;

"Hey! Love birds!" called Tony as the entire team stood, not too far away from them, looking at them. "You coming or are you already getting married?"

Maria blushed as she stepped away from Steve. He looked a little taken aback by everything, especially Maria's quick withdrawal, though Maria quickly reassured him that he had not ruined anything by grabbing his gloved hand and squeezing it lightly.

"I don't kiss until after the first date," she lied, trying to make him crack a smile at her. "And… we still have ours to come. Remember? Our Central Park deal?"

Steve smiled at her, squeezing her hand back before nodding his head, starting to walk towards the rest of the team with her, hand in hand.

* * *

Loki had given up and was currently placed in a locked room in the Stark Tower. Jarvis was assigned to keep an eye on him and had it not been for the handcuffs Thor had put on Loki - who were from Asgard and were quite strong - and the defeated look on the Trickter's face, Maria would've felt uneasy about leaving him alone while the team went to eat Shawarma.

It was Tony's idea to do so and although all of them were tired, they were also hungry and they agreed on the idea.

As they entered the Shawarma place - some still in their uniforms while Tony and Bruce had both degraded to just being themselves again and not Iron Man or the Hulk - the owner of the joint looked at them with a confused look on his face. In his hands, he held a broom, cleaning up the debris and dirt that had entered through the broken window.

"A table for seven, please," said Tony, the owner simply staring at them before he gestured to a table behind him. "Thanks."

With nonchalant steps, Tony walked towards the table, moving another one towards it so that everyone fitted around the same table before walking towards the owner and ordering the food. The others all sat down around the table, feeling rather uncomfortable as they looked at the broke joint they were sitting in. Maria placed herself in between Clint and Steve, sitting opposite of Thor who smiled widely at her, looking rather excited about the food that was on its way.

"Well, food's coming up," said Tony as he sat down next to Thor.

"Are we going to talk about what we're gonna do with Loki?" asked Bruce, his eyes looking at everyone.

"I will take Loki back to Asgard along with the Tesseract," said Thor before looking at Natasha. "Is the Tesseract still on the roof of the tower of Stark?"

"No, Selvig helped me placed it back in the briefcase made for it," said Natasha. "It's in Stark Towers at the moment, safely tucked away."

At this, Thor nodded his head.

"I'm sure SHIELD will be very happy about us simply letting the Tesseract go," said Maria, glancing at Clint.

"They'll just have to deal with it," he said, shrugging as the food arrived.

"Thanks," said Maria to the owner of the shop as he placed a plate filled with food in front of her, gaining an odd look in return from the man.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading! Don't forget to let me know what you thought by leaving a comment!**


	17. Chapter 17, A New Life

**Make You Feel My Love ~Book I~**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Marvel or any of its characters or movies/series. All I own is my own OC and  her story.

* * *

 **~Chapter 17~  
** **A New Life**

Maria stood next to Clint and Natasha, watching Bruce place the Tesseract in an odd contraption that Thor was holding onto. From what Thor had explained, the contraption would open a temporary portal to Asgard, sending both Thor and Loki back to their realm.

While Thor and Loki were both in their Asgardian clothes, the rest of the Avengers were all wearing their normal, civilian clothes. Maria wore what she had worn when she arrived to the helicarrier as that was the place where she had spent the night. Over her shoulder, she wore her bag, filled with her torn apart, and dirty, suit and her weapons. Her still messy hair was braided back in order to make it look more neat. Next to her, Clint and Natasha were standing and Maria couldn't help but find it odd to see the two agents in civilian clothes.

As the contraption was ready for use, Maria walked over to Thor, throwing her arms around him. She noticed the glare Loki sent her way but she ignored him as Thor lifted her up from the ground, making her laugh. When he put her back down, he patted her head, causing her to lift an eyebrow at him.

"I will miss you, my little lady," said Thor, making Maria laugh again.

"I will miss you too," said Maria. "Just come back some day, alright?"

"I will try," said Thor before Maria turned around, walking away from the two Asgardians to stand next to Clint again.

She watched with fascinated eyes as Thor and Loki disappeared within a second, only some blue light showing before they were gone.

"Alright then," said Clint as Tony and Bruce walked over to the three of them. "I suppose we'll see each other again?"

"When the world needs us, we'll come back together again," said Tony, nodding his head at Maria as they shook hands. "I'll let the money keep coming."

"No," said Maria, earning a look from Tony. "Don't bother… I have to let go."

Tony raised an eyebrow before nodding his head, letting go of her hand.

"Are we cool?" asked Tony, raising an eyebrow. "I mean… I said some stuff and-"

"Don't worry, Tony," said Maria, smiling widely at him in order to reassure him that she was indeed telling the truth. "You were under the influence of Loki. We all said stuff that none of us really meant."

"Okay… good," said Tony, looking away from Maria to the ground. "You know, I don't blame you for not telling the truth. I really don't. After all, I was your boss. Can't go around telling the guy that pays you that you were an assassin."

"Yeah," said Maria, mimicking Tony with looking down at her feet.

"But anyway," said Tony. "We're cool. I don't mind your past. The past is the past. We've both done things that we wish we hadn't done and maybe, just maybe though, we can… help each other through the aftermath."

At this, Maria looked up at him with surprised eyes before she smiled widely.

"I'd like that," said Maria.

"Just call if there's anything you need, kid," said Tony, winking once before sidestepping to say goodbye to Natasha and Clint.

Bruce took his place in front of Maria and he smiled sheepishly at her, grasping her hand and shaking it softly.

"It was nice working with you," said Bruce.

"The pleasure was all mine," she replied, smiling softly at him. "What are you going to do now?"

"Tony invited me to see his labs," said Bruce, shrugging. "I suppose I'll stay with him and work."

"Sounds nice," said Maria, letting go of his hand.

"Are you- are you going with Steve?" asked Bruce, making Maria's smile drop.

She hadn't thought about it. What she was going to do. Clint had already taken her in as his pupil and she supposed there wasn't really much of a choice. All she really wanted was to be with Steve though there wasn't much she could do about it. Her training would be for at least six months and maybe, after that, they could resume working together.

"I… I don't think so," said Maria, glancing at Clint who was watching her with a monotone look on his face, his eyes being shielded by a pair of sunglasses.

"Well, whatever you do, I hope you'll be happy," said Bruce with a smile before he walked over to Tony, saying goodbye to Steve on the way.

"You ready?" asked Clint, earning a shake of Maria's head.

"No, lover boy is still waiting for you," concluded Natasha, nodding towards Steve who was looking at her, standing over by his motorcycle.

With quick steps she walked over to Steve, mirroring the smile that played on his lips as he saw her walk over to him.

"So," she started, Steve shifting on his feet. "Are you going to continue working for SHIELD?"

"I think so. Peggy was part of creating SHIELD so I think I'd like to continue working for them," said Steve, earning a soft smile from Maria as she admired his words. "Not to mention that I can't see what else I can do."

"I'm sure there's something," said Maria. "A little bird told me that you're pretty decent with a pen."

At this, Steve chuckled. "I suppose I can draw. But I don't think it's something I can make a living on."

"As long as you're happy, Cap," said Maria before throwing her arms around his neck, embracing him to which Steve immediately replied by wrapping his arms around her waist, although he held her lightly, it still felt like a warm hug and Maria couldn't help but wish that she didn't have to let go.

"What about you?" asked Steve.

"Well…" she looked back at Natasha and Clint who both were waiting on her by the car.

They both quickly looked away when Maria looked over at them to which she rolled her eyes.

"Clint's still my supervising officer so… I have six months of training ahead of me," said Maria, earning a nod from Steve.

"Is your training over in D.C.?" asked Steve quietly, making Maria look at him again.

"Yeah, why?" asked Maria, earning a goofy grin from Steve.

"Fury's moving me there," he said. "It's closer to the Triskelion."

"Oh," said Maria, smiling the same smile as Steve was. "Then we might see each other in between missions!"

"I hope so," said Steve.

"I have two weeks until I'm moved there… you, uh… wanna meet up tomorrow?" asked Maria, blushing as Steve looked at her. "You know… you said you hadn't been to Central Park before and… um, I told you that I could tak-"

"I'd love that." Luckily, he interrupted her rambling before she could say anything awkward and she smiled widely at him.

"Great!" placing a soft kiss to his cheek, she turned back to Clint and Natasha, not seeing the faint blush that crept up on Steve's cheeks. "Three o'clock tomorrow!"

Entering the car Clint and Natasha were currently sitting in, waiting for her, she giggled softly, a warm and exciting feeling entering her heart at the thought of the upcoming day. Although she wasn't sure about whether or not it was a date or not, she still felt excited about being able to spend time with Steve outside of a mission.

"I see that went well," commented Natasha, giving her a knowing look through the rearview mirror as she was seated behind the wheel.

When they raced past Steve, she couldn't help but smile widely at him as he waved once at her.

* * *

Under a large building in the center of Hell's Kitchen, a group of men, all wearing dark clothes with a hint of leather, stood circling a man that was down on his knees. The man's body was shaking and blood was dripping down from his nose.

"You are pathetic!" the leader said, a thick Russian accent dripping from his words.

"I tried, I really did!" replied the other man. "But Iron Man… He came and I couldn't do anything an-"

The collision of the leader's fist with the man's jaw caused a cracking sound to echo through the corridors of the base. "No excuses… I want her dead, you hear me? Dead. Thanks to her, we cannot become larger than we are! They want her dead!"

"But boss…" said the man, daring to look up at the leader's dark, blue eyes. "You were the one that let her go in the first place. Shouldn't you be-"

"Do you want me to stick my knife through your eyeball?" asked the leader, his eyes filled with rage though is voice sounded calm when he said it.

"No, sir…" said the man, his voice shaking.

Another man stepped forwards, his eyes calm as he looked at his leader. "Did you ever tell her who we worked for? I have heard she is with the captain now."

"Are you dumb or something? I wouldn't even tell my mother that!" said the leader before grabbing the first man's jacket, hosting him up to his feet. "You get one more chance… Then, I will rip your throat out if you dare come back here without putting a bullet through her heart."

"Y-Yes, boss," said the man, his eyes flickering between the scar on the man's left cheek and his rage filled eyes.

"Now, go," said the leader, letting go of the man who immediately ran away from the group of men.

"Boss," said a large, dark haired man, his voice deep with a southern accent dripping from his words. "I bet'cha he aint got the balls to kill 'er."

"Don't distrust the loyalty of the cowardly, Alex," said the leader. "He's more afraid of me than of putting a bullet through that girl's heart."

* * *

"I did it," she said quietly, a tear falling down her cheek. "I found something good that I can do in my life. I didn't give up, just like you said I shouldn't do. I kept on trying to make the good choices and I've finally done one. I've finally found my path."

The sound of the heart monitor beeped throughout the room. She was sat on a lonely chair next to her grandmother's body. From outside the one window that existed in her room, she saw the darkness of the night and she knew that she had been sitting there for far too long already. Soon, someone was going to notice that she still hadn't left yet although visiting hours were long over and she knew that if it was going to happen that day, it had to happen soon.

"I just wish you could be here… that you could tell me if it's truly the correct path. So that you could be there and say something smart again just like you always did. Some kind of quote from one of your favorite authors. Or maybe… just hug me and tell me how proud you are of me," said Maria, more tears pushing their way up to her eyes as she said these words, remembering the times she had had with her grandmother, the only person that had ever been kind to her during her childhood; the only person during her childhood that had learned her the concept of true happiness and love. "Why did you have to go?"

At this point, her eyes stung and tears were falling freely from her eyes. "Why can't anything good every stay with me?"

With trembling hands and sobs escaping her, she stood up and shifted towards the machines that were currently keeping her grandmother alive.

"I'm sorry about this, granny," she said, taking one last look at the woman she would've been proud to call mother if she could've. "But I think you'd understand why I'm doing this."

She let out a sob as she pressed the off button on the one machine that was pumping air into her grandmother's lungs, hearing the heart monitors beeping stop. As if she was once again that lonely child from so many years back, she lay her head down on her grandmother's belly, crying softly into the fabric of the sheets that were wrapped around her.

In the doorway, doctor Newton was standing with his hands in his pockets. He was watching her with sad eyes and although he now had the bed back, he couldn't help but feel bad about this whole situation and therefore, he decided to let her be for a while before he confronted her about why she was still there, three hours after visiting hours was over.

* * *

 **Two weeks later**

The stars were up and the moon was shining. The blanket on the grass felt cold yet it was the only way to keep the both of them from getting wet as the grass was damp from the moist air surrounding them. There was no one there anymore, most people being at home by now, sleeping or preparing for a night shift somewhere in their homes. But not Steve and Maria. None of them wanted that day to end and neither made a move to make it end either for the moment this ended, neither of them would see each other for quite a while.

The past two weeks, Steve and Maria had met up several times both in Central Park, in different restaurants and at their current apartments. Although they had all been official dates since they both called them that, neither of them had made a move to go further than holding hands yet. For their last date together before Maria had to go and start her training, they decided to meet up in Central Park again as that was where they had had their first date and it had been the best date yet.

There was a street lamp not too far away from them which illuminated their surrounding just enough for them to be able to see each other. The only other light was the moon which, thanks to their spot, was not blocked by the trees. Both Steve and Maria sat close to each other, talking quietly; telling stories about their lives or simply discussing a matter which they both were interested in. As their last discussion died down, a comfortable silence overtook the both of them as they both simply watched the stars. From time to time, they'd glance at each other, exchanging a smile before looking back up at the sky. It wasn't until a flash of light, visible for only a few seconds, formed as a small streak on the high sky, appeared that the silence was broken.

"Oh my God!" said Maria as Steve chuckled. "Did you see that?"

"Yes, beautiful, isn't it?" said Steve, looking over at Maria, watching her gape at the dark sky, her finger pointed upwards.

"I've never seen a falling star before," said Maria quietly before looking over at Steve.

"Make a wish," said Steve, their shoulders touching as Maria shifted slightly in order to sit more comfortably before she leaned her chin in her hand for a few seconds. Then, as if she had just accomplished something huge, she straightened her back again with a huge smile gracing her lips.

"Done," she said, earning a wide smile from Steve.

"Suppose you won't tell me what you wished for?" asked Steve, earning a shake of Maria's head before she pushed him, jokingly, by pressing her shoulder against his. Her push barely made him move but it still made him chuckle.

"If I do tell you, it won't come true," she said, staring Steve deep in the eyes as he chuckled again.

"Do you really believe in that?" asked Steve, catching her stare, feeling glad about the fact that she didn't look away from him this time.

"No," said Maria, smirking before growing serious again. "No, I believe that if you want something to happen, you have to make it happen yourself. You can't rely on people doing everything for you nor can you rely on things simply happening. You need to do something yourself before you get what you want."

Steve nodded his head, not breaking the eye contact he had with her as she smiled widely, a certain urge to fulfil her wish suddenly making her cheeks flush. Her heart beat slowly and calmly and she didn't feel nervous at all as she leaned slightly closer to him, still not breaking eye contact with him. And when Steve realized that she was indeed leaning in closer towards his face and not simply because she wanted to place her head on his shoulder, he leaned in as well. However, for him it felt nervous and scary. Although he had had his first kiss already, which he was glad about since he knew he'd be even more nervous had he not, his other kisses had not been with someone he cared so deeply for. Someone that had done so much for him the past few days that he didn't even know how to live in the world, or time, without her. And yes, it sounded foolish as they had known each other for three days. Though that was what he felt and although it might be a simple crush, Steve had waited too long before and he was not going to do it again. If this wasn't a crush and he let her go, he'd never be able to forgive himself.

The moment Maria stopped leaning in, their lips almost touching and their noses already doing so, Steve felt his heart sink. Had he done something wrong? Was this not what she had wanted?

Though, that was not why Maria stopped. She stopped, because she could feel Steve shake, she could feel the nervousness he felt and she didn't want him to feel like that during first kiss. Their first kiss was something she wanted that the both, though mostly him, could think back at and smile, not cringe. She could feel the anticipation before this kiss as well and although her lips were shaking slightly as well, that was simply because this was exciting for her. Even Steve's hand was shaking. So, she smiled a soft smile at him, her eyes only seeing his baby blue eyes as they were so close now. Her smile was mirrored on his lips although he still felt nervous.

"You see?" she said, making Steve feel rather confused. "I'm making my wish come true… all by myself."

Her words made Steve relax. This was what she wanted. This was what he wanted. Why be nervous then? So, instead of waiting for her to continue to lean in, he grabbed her cheek and forced her lips against his. It was a move he had never done before, but the lust he felt towards this woman was too much for him to bare. All his morals about being a gentleman, controlling your feelings and being a good boy were thrown out to the bushes the moment she showed that she wanted him as bad as he wanted her. And so, when she kissed back – Maria being taken back by the force of the kiss but still enjoying it greatly – he didn't hesitate to let his other hand sneak around her waist, smiling into the kiss as he finally got what he wanted.

They finally got their wishes to come true.

Back at the pathway that led through Central Park, a man now stood under the light of the streetlamp. He wore dark clothes and a leather jacket, his hands tucked down into the pockets of his jeans as he stared at Maria and Steve. His face showed nervousness and fear though it was the fact that he was _staring_ at them that made Maria notice him.

She looked past Steve as he placed his hand against her cheek, following the outlines of her face with his fingers gently as he smiled. Though Maria wasn't smiling.

"Steve," she whispered. "There's a man watching us. No, don't look."

Steve's smile faded away and was replaced by a stern look, his hand grasping Maria's arm protectively.

"What is he doing?" asked Steve in a whisper.

"I don't know… he's just… staring," said Maria when suddenly, the man took his hands out of his pockets.

"Maria?" asked Steve as Maria's eyes widened at the object he was holding in his hands.

A gun.

"Get down!" she screamed, pushing Steve to the ground as the sound of a gunshot echoed through the park.

A dog started barking only seconds later far away from the park while the sounds of the man's boots hitting against the path he was on could be heard. He was running.

He was running away from them.

* * *

The man ran back home, his hands shaking and his entire body sweating. He had never done that before. Of course, he had practiced shooting at dummies, but not on actual people. He had killed someone. A woman. A young woman with her entire life ahead of her. As he had watched her and that man in the park, he had seen her innocent smile and laughter so many times. He hadn't seen a dangerous spy that was going to take his company down. He had seen a human being; a young woman.

"Oh God…" he said as he walked towards the sink, placing the gun next to it before leaning over it, ready to throw up.

"I suppose you've done it?" asked a voice from behind the man, a Russian accent to his voice.

His apartment was dark as he hadn't turned all the lights on yet. So, he hadn't seen him being there. His boss.

"I have," said the man, trying to not let his nervousness show as he turned around, sweat dripping down his forehead.

"Good. Our employee will approve of this," said his boss. "He won't have to send out his favorite toy now."

"No… He won't," said the man, nodding his head.

"Was it through the heart?" asked the boss, cocking his head to the side as he took out a knife which he always kept under his sleeve, ignorantly starting to remove some dirt from underneath of his nails.

"I… Yes, it was," the man said, panicking as he realized he hadn't checked the body, finding it hard to do so as that other blonde man had been there with her. Hell, he hadn't even seen where the bullet had hit her. For all he knew, she could still be… alive…

His boss looked at him with cold eyes before walking over to him. "Did you bring evidence? A lock of her hair? Something she wore? A picture?"

His breaths were shaky as he stared at his boss.

"Fool!" roared his boss. "You didn't check if she was dead…"

"Mr. Kuznetsov, I don't understand why-"

"Because she will survive if you shoot her anywhere but the heart!" said his boss, slamming his fist against the wall and leaving a dent in it.

"P-Please… I d-didn't know," said the man, shaking violently as he pressed himself against his sink, wanting to get away from this man as soon as possible.

He should have never taken this job.

"No… you didn't. But you had orders. And orders must be obeyed," said the boss, pointing his knife towards the man which made him stare at his boss, not realizing there was one more man in the room. "You know I don't like to get my hands messy."

"D-Does that mean you'll spare my life?" asked the man, earning a laugh from his boss.

"Yes, _I_ will," said the boss before a metal arm grabbed the man's throat, squeezing it tightly. "He won't."

* * *

 **Four months later**

"Do you mind?" asked Maria, panting heavily as she lay on her back in the middle of the floor, Clint standing over her with his foot on her chest, keeping her down.

"It's good that you can use that sword in various ways and it's good that you can sneak up behind someone without them noticing;" said Clint, shifting so his foot was no longer on her chest before he stretched out his hand to her. "But when it comes to hand to hand combat without that damn thing, you have got to be more alert."

"I try!" she said as she let Clint heave her up to her feet again. "But you're so fast."

Clint eyed her with a look that Maria knew far too well already.

"Oh, alright… I know, I need to practice more," said Maria with a roll of her eyes.

"If you want to ever go out on a mission with lover boy, you'll have to be more prepared for a fight outside of your comfort zone," said Clint before looking her over. "Let's take a break."

The both of them walked over to the lockers that were located on the other side of the room, Maria grabbing her towel and wiping away the sweat from her brow and from the back of her neck.

"Have you heard anything about the man that tried to kill me and Steve?" asked Maria, earning a shake of Clint's head.

"Fury hasn't told me anything yet. Maybe I don't have clearance," said Clint to which Maria looked over at him.

"It's just a man with a gun that thought it would be funny to shoot at us," she said. "Why would you not have clearance to a case like that?"

"Maybe it's not what you think it is," said Clint, shaking his head at her worried look. "I'm sure it's nothing. They probably haven't found him yet."

Maria nodded her head before looking down at the floor as she sat down on a bench that was placed in front of the lockers. Clint joined her after having grabbed his bottle of water, watching her for a while before sighing.

"About your healing ab-"

"I think I'm gonna ask Stark," said Maria, earning a look from Clint.

"Why not SHIELD?" asked Clint. "We're right under SHIELD's largest lab at the moment. You don't think it's easier to do it here?"

"I don't know… I just feel like Banner and Stark could find more," lied Maria, shrugging.

"That's bullshit and you know it," said Clint, nudging her shoulder with his own. "Tell me the truth."

"I don't want SHIELD to know about it if it's something bad… I don't want to become their weapon," said Maria, looking over at her SO with worried eyes. "Banner and Stark don't work for SHIELD and they could keep it a secret if it was something… you know…"

"The worst that it can be is that you're one of them mutants," said Clint before taking a sip from his water. "And that's not even a bad thing. They're just as human as me."

"Still don't want SHIELD to know about it," said Maria, shaking her head. "I'm sure that you have secrets that you don't want SHIELD to know about."

Clint stayed quiet for a while to which Maria looked up at him again. "I have, but Fury's keeping it a secret for me. You can trust him, you know."

With a shrug of her shoulders, she stood up. Although she felt curious as to what it was that Clint was holding away from the rest of the world, she felt as though she shouldn't be asking too many questions about it. After all, a person was allowed to have secrets and if Clint wanted to tell her about his secret, then he could do that when he felt like it.

"You gonna teach me how to deflect a punch or what?" asked Maria with a smirk, tossing her towel away before laughing as she accidentally threw it on top of her SO who simply smiled at her, letting the towel fall from his head to the floor.

"You better know how to deflect a punch now," said Clint with an amused smile before he jumped up from the bench, chuckling as Maria ran away from him with a squeak. "Professional," he said with a smirk before running after her.


	18. The End and Book II

**Make You Feel My Love ~Book I~**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Marvel or any of its characters or movies/series. All I own is my own OC and  her story.

* * *

I really hope you all enjoyed this! I'm not going to pressure anyone into writing a comment about what they thought but I would really appreciate it! Go to my profile to read Book II which will follow The Winter Soldier but I will give it a little twist since it's not only Steve that will be affected by Hydra. I'm not going to give away too much, you simply need to go read it! :D

Thanks for the support and I hope you'll enjoy Book II!


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